Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Wednesday 26 May 2004

26 May 2004

Town are to interview a candidate today for the managerial vacancy at Blundell Park, but first: lots of people who support a club called Manchester United, which has no connection with Grimsby, went to see them play a game of football at the weekend. It was a nice day and they won, so they were very happy. That's nice for them all, isn't it.

In other news today, then, Scarborough's Russell Slade is meeting with GTFC officials with a view to succeeding Nicky Law in the BP hotseat. After Town's website reported yesterday that the club was "thought to be" interested in talking to Slade (again, you'd expect the OS either to know for sure or to desist from journalistic speculation), chairman Furneaux popped up on Radio Humberside last night to reveal that the Boro manager would be nipping down for a chat and a nice cup of tea some time today. Slade began his managerial career with an unsuccessful four-month stint at Notts County in the 1994-95 season and coached at Sheffield United and Bradford (I think) before taking charge at Scarborough in 2001, where he has preserved the club's Conference status against the odds and with bugger all to spend. In a fourth-round FA Cup tie last season his side gave Chelsea a run for their not inconsiderable money. Decisiveness is clearly not his strength, however, as Slade resigned in January 2003 only to change his mind within the week, and penned a new contract at the Stadium of Chips only last month. He is also bald, though his name does not begin with the letter L.

Keith Alexander isn't going to Blackpool and Steve Cotterill might be off to Burnley, by the way, if you're arsed.

Out-of-contract striker Phil Jevons, meanwhile, is being linked with a move to Kidderminster by a local rag with nothing much better to do. The GTFC player of the year - or, more accurately, the man who was given GTFC's player of the year award - is alleged by Wolverhampton's Express & Star newspaper to be the second choice of Kiddy boss Jan Molby should he fail to attract Oxford's Richard Walker, with no more supporting evidence than the fact that Molby was the manager who took Jevons to Hull on a season-long loan 18 months ago. The Express & Star offers no quotes, cites no source and, despite Mister Furneaux's statement to the contrary yesterday, even suggests that Nicky Law is a contender to replace himself as Town manager.

Finally, Anthony Galvin has emailed the Diary to point out that Paul Futcher's son Ben has requested a transfer from Lincoln City. "Saving the Mariners could be genetic," writes Anthony. "If only we had a manager to sign him." Or could outbid Cardiff, Burnley, Derby and Villa, for that matter, eh...