Cod Almighty | Diary

We are shit, for now. We are also great, for ever

13 April 2021

"Whatever will be will be, you're going to Gri-ims-by". They used to sing that at clubs facing relegation from the top flight. 25 years ago, it was pig ignorance. Now, when Kenny Shiels says his Northern Ireland women's team qualifying for the Euros would be like Grimsby winning the Premier League, we can only hold our hands up. We are bottom of the Football League. We are the go-to example of a rubbish club. We are fair game.

"We're shit, and we know we are." Jack Sargent pungently spells out the evidence for it. Paul Hurst knows it. It's not Cod Almighty's fabled (meaning largely untrue) negativity: it is the necessary starting point for putting it right, for we all know the problems are far deeper than our position in the table; that's just a symptom of a club which has stagnated.

Roll on 5 May, not only Mrs Middle-Aged Diary's birthday, but the day we can finally enter the 21st century. Any concern that the club proposes to become a private limited company - with less obligation to put its financial records in the public domain, as I understand it - is more than offset by its intent to achieve B Corporation certification. That means a commitment to meet the highest standards of public transparency, not just to shareholders but to all stakeholders, including fans.

It feels a bit mad that by virtue of my one share in Grimsby Town PLC I have a vote in the proposed change. My right - all our rights - to a say should be vested in the days and the money we have devoted to the Mariners over the course of our lives. It sounds as though B Corporation certificaton is a step to making that a reality.

We've none of us ever stopped being proud to support Town, but there have been far too many days over the last two decades when we've had to separate that undying sense of belonging, community and history from the demeaning actions of the board, trickling down to some players who have behaved as though they don't give a damn. Now we can start to make pride meet only pride.

We are shit, for now. We are also great, for ever.