Cod Almighty | Diary

Not with a bang but a whimper

4 January 2021

Miss Guest Diary writes: Little did I imagine, when I criticised Ian Holloway for rudeness in my last diary, that he would be gone by the time I returned from my mid-season break. And good riddance. I ceased to have any respect for him either as a football manager or a human being months ago.

Much has already been speculated about Holloway's motives for coming to Grimsby in the first place and then for leaving so abruptly, mostly in relation to what he did and didn't know of the proposed investment in the club by a convicted fraudster. Well that's all history now – and is summed up nicely in the recent blog by Rich Lord. But I do take issue with Rich's suggestion that we all went along with the antics of what he describes as "the football manager for the Mighty Boosh" generation. Many of us are more of the Morecambe & Wise generation and had our doubts from the start.

Even before Holloway officially took over I was sounding a note of caution, having been told by a QPR-supporting friend that in his second spell with that club "He went mad, he went long ball, he changed half the team every game regardless of result or individual performance. Relegation was avoided, I'm still not sure how". By February, Tony Butcher was already referring to him as The Pied Piper and I was comparing him to the fraudster in the tale of the Emperor's new clothes. By March I was calling Holloway "clueless". And as for all the quirky interviews with the press, to quote Winston Wolf in Pulp Fiction: "Just because you are a character doesn’t mean you have character."

Now we have the return of Paul Hurst as manager. He seems to have been welcomed back by many Town fans, if not with open arms, then at least with open minds. Which is probably better anyway. Listening to his interviews at the club just before his appointment and after the game on Saturday felt like meeting up with an old friend. He remains resolutely down to earth but I thought I detected a slight difference in manner. Whereas in the past I might have characterised his summing up of Town's situation as gloomy and pessimistic, now it feels merely realistic. He has seen the size of the job and is shaping up to tackle it and seemed almost cheery at the prospect – not something I can ever remember from his first spell with us.

Ex-Town player Gregor Robertson, writing about the recent shenanigans in The Times today, has Hurst acknowledging that "the club is a massive part of the town, and the area. For the size of the club, you’d struggle to find a more passionate group of fans.... my job is trying to get things right on the pitch, improve the playing squad, because whatever happens I want it to be a club that’s in the Football League. We’re in the bottom two. Relegation is the last thing I’d want — whether I was here, or sitting on my sofa at home — having been part of the hard work it took to get us back in the League. We must do everything possible to make sure we stay here."

Whether Hurst can get Town out of their present predicament remains to be seen. If we could be confident of this season going the distance, then I would back him to succeed. But if the Covid situation continues to worsen and the season is once more curtailed, then it's quite possible Town will still be in the bottom two when the music stops.

But there is no point dwelling on that scenario now. What we do need is to find a new epithet for our returning manager. The 'Shorty' label won't do: it was coined when he was one half of the Shouty and Shorty pairing. So, any suggestions?