Cod Almighty | Diary

Not our deadline day but we're still focused on the dosh.

1 February 2022

The only deadline I'm interested in is the one for submitting my diary. Cat pukes up? Sorry I've got a deadline. Dog needs a walk? Sorry I've got a deadline. To be honest I'd rather clean up cat sick than watch the breathless reporter standing outside Newcastle/Everton/Man Utd ground speculating on which new wonder is about to drive through for his medical. They are still dragging the last few drops of sweat from it with the day-after-the-event analysis this morning.

"Newcastle were Europe's big spenders". Wow. If there is one football stat we all could have guessed, this is probably it. A football club to try to improve your global image? Thanks, but no thanks. We'll keep our flogging metaphorical and concentrate on trying to marmalise others on the pitch.

"Rate your team's window". Double-glazed bi-folds? To be fair we do have a very nice glass screen so we can shout "That was out" at the hapless lino, so maybe we could be included. All I really want to say is that it is just obscene. I have little sympathy for the likes of Derby County as their league position over the last few decades should have meant that they could be managed sustainably. But lower down the pyramid many clubs are just scraping by.

In contrast Town turned a profit in "he who shall not be mentioned's" final year of tenure. Almost £200k profit, but only after receiving Covid grants of nearly £600k. The bit I prefer is the "disappearance" of the £1.5million directors' loans (they were never benign) into loans "falling due within a year" and "after more than a year". Notes 14 and 15, if you're interested. It galls me that we are paying him back (especially after he personally profited from the Mariners Trust shares) but it seems it was the price to remove him, and we will get rid, eventually. Those shares encapsulate everything you need to know about his integrity though.

In on the pitch news, Michael Efete made last weekend's Vanarama team of the week. His was a great performance and whilst we stuttered before getting the result we deserved, it was good to see us much improved all round. There was the usual flurry of "get him back" tweets when Hartlepool announced that Luke Hendrie had left by mutual consent. It would have to be someone very special for me to want a player to return, particularly one who didn't want to renew his contract last summer. He's now gone to Bradford City so we don't have to get over-excited.

The only ex-player I kept an eye on was Siriki Dembele. I know we will get a chunk of cash as a sell-on. Does Honest John trouser it as well as the benign loans or does it go part-way to paying them off? Any ideas?

Notts County have given us 500 more tickets for Saturday, so those on the reserve list should get there. It has always been one of my favourite away days, even more so now that I live about ten minutes' walk away from their ground. It's one of our best turn-outs and feels like a proper fixture. Hoping for a decent performance to build on last week. UTM!