Cod Almighty | Diary

May contain May

15 December 2020

If you were wondering what the Grimsby Town board has been up to since Saturday, now you know. They have been writing a script for Scooby-Doo: "and we'd have got away with it, if it hadn't been for you pesky fans."

There have been three main developments since yesterday's diary. Alex May has been out and about. He says that he has been in talks with John Fenty for around two years, and that Fenty knows all about his fraud conviction (and May's assertion that his trial was unfair sounds exactly as airily unconvincing as any other ex-con's). May calls Fenty "a friend": it's good he is so loyal to the failing football club owner with the unanswered questions about his tax affairs.

In the afternoon, Fenty resigned from his role with North East Lincolnshire Council. Middle-Aged Diary hopes, for the health of democracy and probity in public life, that this is a case of jumping before he is pushed. Ever since he took on the role, there has been an evident conflict of interest between him owning a club which is looking for a new ground and being the councillor chiefly responsible for town centre development. The revelation that he had set up a property development company with May only brought that out into the open.

The conflict is all too apparent now the club has stated the project May was specifically interested in: developing training facilities for the Mariners, presumably leaving Cheapside free for other, potentially profitable, developments. The board have now rejected May's offer to buy £1 million worth of shares in Grimsby Town. Seldom has news which, if not exactly good is at least a relief, been so gracelessly packaged, with its hint that the people objecting are to blame.

Once again, we see the straw-man defence: what "statements in the media" suggested May was going to take a controlling interest in the club? Certainly none made by either BBC Humberside or the Grimsby Telegraph. By magnifying the charges against them, they are hoping to present themselves in a better light, refuting claims that were never made. It is like the cheating husband, who, told that the marriage is over, stammers "OK, there's been wrong on both sides." A million pounds of shares would have made May, assuming he used the voting rights that come with them in the interest of his "friend" John Fenty, a sizable obstacle to any takeover bid.

The fact of the matter is that, by entertaining May over weeks or months, the board has shown that they have no principled objection to asking a person convicted of fraudulent property dealings to helping them deliver a property deal. It is only the fact that they have been caught out which has stopped them. We owe a debt of gratitude to James Findlater, John Tondeur, Lloyd Griffith and everyone else who played a part in bringing this affair to light, so effectively.

"The Board reaffirmed their previously stated position that they are prepared to enter into discussions with any interested party wishing to invest in the Club". This they have made all too apparent: the stress is on the word "any", and money launderers (I make no allegations against May or any other specific person) may be wondering even now if Grimsby Town is a club they can do business with. Tempting to make the joke "only reputable people need not apply" but the statement does leave a suggestion they might consider a buy-out rather than expecting money to prop up their own toppling edifice.

This time, if social media is to judged, the fans aren't buying Fenty's arguments (and almost the worst thing about this is his threat that, now he is no longer deputy leader of the council, he'll have more time to devote to the club). One or two are raising the old question that you can't sack the board unless you have someone to take over, and it is indeed a good question. Casual Diary has raised in Cod Almighty before the idea of forming a shareholders united group of genuine fans: that surely is an idea whose time has come.

The club stands for the people of Grimsby and Cleethorpes, their children and grandchildren. This affair has made clear the current board are no longer fit custodians of the trust we have had to place in them to look after a vital part of our community. We must make sure we have a real stake, and a real say, in whatever the next developments are at the club.

It is almost Christmas. Hard to say, if you have a child who loves Town or who is mad about football and who you are hoping to hook onto the Mariners, that you will not buy them a replica top. I'm not in that position, so it is easy for me to say that I will not be giving anything to the club from now on unless it is to strengthen the hands of those who can bring the real change that our football club urgently needs.

Football? Ah yes, football. Tonight, the Mariners have what we must call a relegation six-pointer against Southend United. In the build-up, manager Ian Holloway has indulged in a bit of straw-mannery of his own, putting the suggestion that he has given up on number one goalkeeper James McKeown into the mouth of his interviewer, just so he can refute the charge.

My thoughts - yours too - are with whatever team Holloway puts out tonight. If they can put in the performance we need despite all the uncertainty surrounding the club, then we will be able to say of them something we certainly cannot say of their employers: "We are proud fans of Grimsby Town."