Cod Almighty | Diary

I didn’t realise dry January referred to Town’s transfers lol

2 February 2023

Hurst has his detractors. After all, he’s no Buckley — who, um, had his detractors. You only have to look at some of the sub-4,000 crowds we used to get in the second division, or the comments section in the Grimsby Telegraph from the 1990s, to know that our fans have always found something to grumble about, even after two successive promotions.

Your West Yorkshire Diary was told, via Twitter, that none of us would have accepted this so-called penny-pinching January business under the Fenty regime. However, the argument is undermined and somewhat flawed by the small issue of Fenty’s entire era being an unmitigated disaster.

His time in charge is characterised by a litany of poor decisions; signing what looked to be half decent players on paper, only for nearly all of them to toss it off while playing in our black and white shirts. Then, Fenty would increase his benign loans by spending even more cash in January transfer windows in an attempt to rectify the issues he facilitated in the first place. Chucking dodgy money after bad, I think the expression is. Got us nowhere — well, non-League, technically. Twice.

His way of doing things was destined to fail from the outset. It was chronic mismanagement that basically left the door wide open for a culture of fatigue, inertia and malaise to thrive, and the club nosedived. To once again become a sensible and sustainably-run club, most if not all of 1878 Partners' efforts so far have been to close that door, and bolt it, so that we don’t repeat those same unforgivable mistakes again.

I just wish the fans who burst blood vessels over our perceived underperformance in the transfer market had been as equally apoplectic when we actively chose to let our most prolific goalscorer of the modern era leave for nothing to Hartlepool. But seeing Brendan Kiernan make the same switch, alongside our inability to attract Andrew Dallas from Solihull Moors or Ged Garner from Fleetwood would appear a worse crime, if you dare to venture onto social media platforms and count how many times the word ‘shambles’ is used. Clearly, anyone using that word didn’t and still can’t understand the state we were in when our new owners took over.

I’m not saying fans aren’t allowed to be disappointed or underwhelmed. I’m not saying they can’t have an opinion, either, or that 1878 get a free pass. It’s important we ask questions, but to do so while acknowledging the wider context. This club was on its knees two years ago. The likes of Accrington, Morecambe and Burton spent a few years at this level building their futures. Success doesn’t happen overnight, and two decades of failure doesn’t get wiped out in two years (even if one of them includes a promotion).

I watched the Macclesfield FC documentary on iPlayer last night, during which the club’s owner, Robert Smethurst, revealed he spent £4m just to make it sustainable at the ninth tier of English football. They were liquidated with debts amounting to £500,000. Four million quid and at least four years (likely many more) before they can get back to where they were when things went to pot. We were possibly days from Fenty selling our soul. In just over 18 months we’ve bounced back to the Football League and have just earned an FA Cup fourth round replay.

Town signed four players in January. I for one am pleased with the addition of Tom Dickson-Peters in particular because I think it’s crucial in 2023 that you have at least three double-barrelled surnames in the squad. What with Jordan Maguire-Drew signing for Yeovil, it left us one short. Now, with Anthony Driscoll-Glennon and Danilo Orsi-Dadamo, we're back up to our full complement of three.

Dickson-Peters, along with fellow loan signings Mikey O’Neill and George Lloyd, plus the permanent signing of Josh Emmanuel, will be available for Town’s trip to Crewe this weekend. Ah yes, Crewe. Dean Sinclair was the last player to score for us at Gresty Road, but that was in a 4-2 defeat almost 13 years ago. We’ve lost on our last five visits there; the last time we got a result at Crewe was when Jack Lester scored in a 1-1 draw in August 1999. The last time we won there was September 1990.

Time to put that right, I’d suggest. UTM!