Cod Almighty | Diary

Diary - Tuesday 6 July 2004

6 July 2004

The halls of Blundell Park currently resemble a student exchange as Russell Slade's French revolution continues with the arrival of a fourth Gallic trialist, Yannick Kamanan. The 22-year-old forward did three years at Tottingham netting a number of smartly-taken goals for their reserves during 2001-02. A product, apparently, of the Paris St Germain youth system, Kamanan was released by Spurs and failed to win a contract at Gillingham in 2002 leading him to return home where he has spent the past two years at Strasbourg. If Kamanan turns out to be anything like half of what the diary has read, then maybe Town should turn the stripes on their shirts into hoops. And start accessorising with berets and garlands of garlic round their necks. In the meantime play spot the difference between the minimalist reports carried on the club's site and This Is Grimsby.

That Friday feeling returns next season. No, as snack-tastic as it could be, Town haven't announced a deal with Crunchie. Instead they have let it be known that they are subjected to playing matches during the first hours of the diary's habitual 48 hour end-of-week piss-up. Already shifted forward a dreaded 19 hours and 15 minutes are the away games at Cheltenham and Southend. Slightly more well thought out, the Easter Saturday trip to Bury has also been moved forward, but now kicks off at 3pm on Good Friday, potentially giving any Northern-based ex-pats an extra day "back home".

It's slow news day all round, and even This Is Grimsby concedes this devoting a page to a fact highlighted in a Cod Almighty quiz two weeks ago. Elsewhere? Some rival team's fan thinks he has "this feeling that Grimsby will be there or thereabouts next May". Nikos Dabizas, the cheeky scamp, eh. And, Freddie Flintoff and Andy Strauss are clubbing the West Indies attack all over the place.

To tide you over until tomorrow, muse over this little teaser. Besides me is a Town shirt decorated, just last week, with 21 signatures. According to our up-to-date squad list Town have - including trialists - 20 players on their books. Go figure...