Cod Almighty | Diary

No banners please, we're British

27 June 2022

Miss Guest Diary writes: I learnt a new word last week: tifo. For those of you also unfamiliar with this word it is the name given to choreographed displays of flags or banners at a football match, originating in Italy but now quite common in the rest of Europe. I seem to recall Lincoln had a go at it a few years ago, much to the derision of Town fans.

It came up because those chaps over at the DN35 podcast made a suggestion that Town should have a black and white tifo for our opening home game. The chief Tweeter at CA Towers was the first to express some scepticism – the general gist being that it could make us "look like a bunch of tosspots" – and there was little enthusiasm from most other commenters. Thank goodness, I sometimes have flashbacks to being smothered by that awful giant flag which used to make its way very shoddily across the Pontoon and back a few years ago.

I have an aversion, which I think is shared by many Town fans, to being 'organised' into supporting the team. If you have to manipulate it, is it even real support? I still cringe at the memory of the relegation years in the early part of this century when Dave Boylen used to go around the ground shouting "one, two, three, wahey" in front of each stand.

The Twitter debate on tifos went off at a tangent into talk of a new Harry Haddock – I'm all in favour of that. Inflatables are really our thing, aren't they, not pretentious signage or flag choreography. My 2015 version of Harry travelled down to London in the back of the car for the play-off final and has stayed there ever since – gently taunting any County fans who might happen to see it when we've been to Trent Bridge for the cricket in the last couple of weeks.

Talking of Harry, I was thrilled to see our own Harry Clifton sign on for another two years. It's no secret that he is currently my favourite Town player. The interview he gave after signing is delightful, saying all the right things, and he always looks so well-groomed – not for him the matchday stubbly look adopted by so many these days.

Ryan Taylor has also re-signed. That he has only extended his stay by one year is likely to be more to do with his age – now 34 – than the quality he brings to the team. Will Amos and Cropper, the other two out-of-contract players who have been offered new deals, sign up again? Some might suggest that they would be crazy not to when both of them had their careers resurrected by signing for Town earlier this year. I mean, Cropper doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry, for goodness sake – but he does have that long throw, which would be an asset for any team. Maybe Scunny will outbid us!

Leaving those two aside, CA's tracker indicates Hurst now has a large enough squad to get going at pre-season training next week. And I have every confidence he will bring in others to plug any gaps before the season starts in just under five weeks' (FIVE WEEKS!) time. No doubt just as this diary hits the ether a new signing will be announced - I'll just have to leave that for tomorrow's diary to cover.

UTM