Cod Almighty | Diary

All that extra time has mentally drained us all

22 June 2022

Greetings! Any recent-ish substantial GTFC news? Yes, Michee Efete extends his stay (admittedly Monday pm breaking news), and a trip back 12 months...Michee who? Turns out he has been an astute acquisition, and has signed up for two more years. Similarly, this Diarist confesses to not knowing who Ben Fox was either this time last summer. And it would have been nice for him to also sign for two years, but our loss is Northampton's gain. This summer I've limited knowledge of either newcomers Niall Maher or Danilo Orsi.  Perhaps I should pay more attention to the opposition teams.

So, standard deference to Paul Hurst and his player encyclopaedia regarding potential newbies, without forgetting new contract offers for Battersby, Cropper, Amos, Clifton, Khouri, Taylor, Scannell - almost a full XI-worth of Mariners to possibly renew. Given this being a pre-lunch diary I hope for Twitter notifications galore whilst you read it. You don't have @officialgtfc Twitter notifications switched on? Come on!

Anyway, where was I? New signings, and patterns of them.

This Shrewsbury John McAtee scholar clip from Youtube reminded me of last season's attempts to reunite Shrewsbury youths (McAtee, Ryan Sears, and an attempt for Ryan Barnett, who went to Solihull instead) which followed on from the Hereford pair (Coke and LJL). We took Taylor and Longe-King from Newport, didn't we? Then during last season, there was a Port Vale posse (Crookes, joined by Burgess and Amos). Seems a fair chunk of incoming signings have recently worked together before. Like a group audition process, sort of. (See also Hull and Aston Villa loanees). This aids idle transfer speculation. Any more from Halifax or Harrogate anyone? Or is it back to Hull for more loanees? Or another ex-Hartlepool to join Holohan? (Enough H's - Ed)

In my last GHF diary I made a post-season list:
Retained list (tick)
New sponsor announcement (tick)
New signings (half-tick)
Fixture list (not yet)
Pre-season friendlies (half-tick)
New kits (not yet)

One last thing, hope you have seen this fundraiser for the Disabled Supporters group, who themselves have arrived on twitter: @DisabledGTFC. Tom is 22 days into a 30-day challenge, please support if you can!

Right-o, I'm heading to BP to renew my season ticket; if I see any of Ollie, Jordan, Danny, Harry, Evan, Ryan or Scans with pen poised, I'll let @codalmighty know!