Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Tuesday 1 June 2004
1 June 2004
Russell Slade talked the talk pretty well after becoming Town's new manager last week, and now he is beginning to perambulate the hike as well. The former Scarborough boss has told the Grimsby Telegraph he is already househunting in the area after putting his old gaff up for sale as soon as he got the Town job. "My house has gone up for sale within 24 hours of agreeing to come here," announces Slade. "That's part of my commitment to the club." Comments from John Fenty, who seems to be doing all the interviews right now instead of Peter Furneaux, suggest that he knows what makes the locals tick. "Grimsby people have been used to seeing a sleeves-rolled-up mentality and true commitment at the club," says the anticipated next GTFC chairman. "That has been missing over the last two seasons. The fact that Russell wanted to move to Grimsby was very important in the selection process." As Russ does the rounds of Jackson Green & Preston et al, then, the Diary senses a reality TV opportunity: one involving Kirstie Allsopp, and preferably also a large tub of chocolate ice cream.
Craig Oman, meanwhile, has emailed again with another snippet of background information about the new man at the helm, which he forgot to include last Friday. "My mate Dom, who works here and is a Forest fan, says that Slade was his PE teacher at school and was 'a sadistic bastard who made us do cross country all the time!!'" writes Craig. Well, here's hoping he can take a similarly tough approach with the idle sods among his new charges, eh.
As reported by Guest Diary last Friday, Town have landed a friendly against Willem II on 26 July. Your regular Diary, meanwhile, is still perplexed by the announcement of this fixture on the club's official website, which reveals: "The Dutch side have been league champions on three occasions," but adds: "The 1998-99 season was the most successful ever for Willem II. The club ended second in the league." With Blundell Park staff adopting success criteria like that, the Mariners' league form over the past two seasons begins to make slightly more sense.
Former GTFC transients Richard Hughes, Danny Coyne and John 'The Jackal' Oster have all been in international action in the run-up to their countries not appearing in Euro 2004, and Miles Moss has emailed the Diary to point out a BBC report on Wales' emphatic 1-0 win over the mighty Canada at the weekend. "At the other end, Wales were fortunate to survive two fluffed clearance kicks from Danny Coyne, both rebounding away from the Leicester keeper's goal," reports the Beeb. "Hahahahaha," adds Miles.
Finally today, a call for questions. The estimable Mr Paul Thundercliffe, who has already interviewed Peter Furneaux and John Tondeur for this website in recent months, is soon to be taking tea with former Grimsby Telegraph football writer Nigel Lowther and John 'Blimey!' Moore, commentary hero of Town's end-of-season highlights videos. Paul would like to hear from Diary readers with any questions you may like him to put to these personages, so email thundercliffe@codalmighty.com with, er, any questions you may like him to put to these personages.