Cod Almighty | Diary

Brave New World

16 June 2021

The appetite for diaries and close season content in general was chewed over at CA HQ this morning. Sources of distraction ranged from plausible - good weather, cricket, and the Euros, to the unlikely - Wicklow's tireless pursuit of the 'worst team in GAA history' mantle. As pointed out by the postbag editor, there is enough to suggest we soldier on. 

Paul Hurst seems keen to keep providing us with something fishy to talk about. According to Chris Doigy Doig, the gaffer has just gone on holiday but left us with the announcements of two new signings. Ben Fox and David Longe-King were recently released by Burton and Newport respectively and join Pearson, Sears and McAtee in the busy running order for the "New Signing Sings" event at the first away trip next season.

Longe-King's "what type of 6ft 4in brick shithouse not to be messed with are you" interview gives us the opportunity to include a mention of Pádraig Amond, who I suspect is one of few readers to have got the earlier Wicklow reference. Podge's endorsement of "the Gaffer and Doigy" helped seal the move with the defender sharing that "Podge is hardly ever wrong". The CA speculation this morning was that Podge probably still refers to "the Gaffer and Doigy" and that one of those few occasions when he was wrong was not celebrating his goals against us for Hartlepool by running to the Findus and lifting his shirt to reveal a suitably sloganed Tee directed to Principal Blunder.

Fox, a defensive midfielder, had a promising start to his career at Burton interrupted by an anterior cruciate ligament injury (knee-knack, I just Googled it for us) which forced him to miss the 2019-20 season. He's only a young 'un though and if he's fully recovered looks like a good signing. We won't know of course until after he's actually kicked a ball once or twice. As usual, news of the signings brought levels of excitement on the GTFC corner of t'internet not seen since January when we signed a shedload of players and August last year and (repeat for 94 previous transfer windows). This time (we'll get it right). Things are different this time, surely. Season tickets went on sale yesterday and with this came a deserved gesture to Zane Powles and further evidence of the new vibe in town. Lovely stuff from the Chair.

Back to our signings, Daubney Diary was mightily impressed yesterday by Longe-King's biceps and retro GTFC scarf between them but hasn't got really excited about an arrival since the re-signing of Paul Groves and before that, Tony Ford's return in 1991. It's from getting burnt in 1989 when Dad called to tell me we'd signed "that Gabbiadini from Sunderland". Of course the top scorer in Division Two would want to sign for a club at the bottom of Division Four. There's no chance he had a less talented brother. My own fault: Daubney Dad is not to be trusted, having maintained for years that Keith and Kevin Jobling were related because "they must be".

Keith "No relation to Kevin" Jobling gets a mention in our latest postbag, where Patrick Conway has sent in nominations for our Relegation Stalwarts XI. While Middle-Aged Diary is assigning positions and squad numbers, get thinking about the next close season XI: The Can You Bring Your Brother As Well XI. Alright, we need suggestions for the name as well as the players but the criteria is simple. Town players with a brother who play or played at a higher level than them. John McAtee, for example, like Ricky Gabbiadini before him, has a brother at a top flight club. John Cockerill had Glenn, Dave Worthington had Frank, etc. There are more but I won't spoil your fun, beyond the hint that one candidate is currently with a Serie A team. Get cracking.