Cod Almighty | Diary
In the land of the pearl fisher
14 August 2020
In February 1925, the board of Grimsby Town warned that the club would fold... [Oy, Middle Aged Diary, there is actual, 21st century news. Can it. - Eds]
Is Cheapside such a scary place that even the new signings go in pairs? Joining us yesterday were attacking midfielder George Williams and forward Montel Gibson. They have rather different pedigrees.
George Williams is recovering from a complicated leg fracture. Worse than that, he started his career with an outfit not mentioned in polite circles (although to be fair, he was born in Milton Keynes) and his last club was Forest Green Rovers. Against this, he pissed off Pete Winkelman by preferring to join Fulham as a scholar rather than stay in Buckinghamshire. Until we can actually see him play (or at least read the accounts of people who have seen him play), we can celebrate that he has a Welsh mother and seven senior Wales caps. Already I'm dreaming of Clifton and Williams achieving glory, both with Town and internationally, in the years to come.
Montel Gibson spent last season scoring shedloads of goals for Halesowen Town in the Southern League Division One Central. The rumour is he has joined Grimsby just because he is sick of people asking him "How come Halesowen are called the Yeltz?" Proving I can read a Wikipedia entry as well as you, he is no stranger to Blundell Park, having made one of his five appearances for Notts County in a 2-0 defeat by Town in 2017.
And then there were three. The news has just come in that, subject to international clearance, Alhagi Touray Sisay has followed Middle-Aged Diary in making the long ("Are we nearly there yet?" times 12, my mother suggests) journey east from Aberystwyth to Cleethorpes. It is my natural, unnatural condition to be a tiny bit homesick for both, at the slightest provocation. This is a signing that Basque Diary trailled yesterday so I'll just provide the local colour that while playing for the Green and Blacks, he stayed in Borth, a seaside village with an out-of-season charm even in August. Think Humberston, less the fitties (although it has caravan parks to spare) but with grand views of distant mountains. As Sisay wisely observes, Borth is a long way from Barcelona or Liverpool.
It won't be a season as we used to know it, but 2020-21 is beginning to take a kind of shape. This week also, Grimsby Town Women signed Sophie Bell from Barnsley and on Wednesday they beat Lincoln Moorlands 5-1 in a pre-season friendly. This time next week the men's fixtures will be released and we now know that Stevenage, not Macclesfield, with complete the fourth flight. Football is beginning to break out in North-East Lincolnshire.
All five of the men's signings this week are making the right noises (what other kind are they likely to make - not even Newell's old sweats said "I'm only here for the beer and one last payday") and doing the right things: Williams is bringing his young family with him. There is the added twist of proclamations about how great Ian Holloway is, a fisher of Fishermen. Brian Laws spoke of "rough diamonds" when he was finding players in Division Four. Holloway is looking among the middle reaches of non-League, and staking his reputation that he is finding pearls. This is his team now, and we rise or fall by his judgements. It is bold, it could turn scary, but it is undoubtedly exciting.