Cod Almighty | Diary

The Art of Doing Nothing

22 January 2025

January is a tricky time for all of us. The excitement of New Year's resolutions has waned, the Christmas bills are rolling in, and our beloved Grimsby Town is three weeks into the transfer window without a sniff of activity. Us Mariners faithful are getting restless, scouring Twitter for rumours like archaeologists…hoping to unearth a striker who can hit double digits. But as I sit here in my lucky haddock-emblazoned slippers, I can't help but wonder "is doing nothing really such a bad thing?"

Let me take you back to my A-level days – a time when doing nothing was my specialty. Revision timetables were carefully crafted, colour-coded, and promptly ignored. While my friends locked themselves in libraries, I spent the Spring Term mastering the fine art of procrastination. Did my laissez-faire approach completely derail me? Well, not exactly. I scraped by, leaving with grades that might not have wowed an Oxbridge admissions tutor but were enough to get me where I needed to go. Sometimes, a measured approach to doing nothing is exactly what's required.

In fact, doing nothing has an entire philosophy dedicated to it. Daoism teaches the value of 'Wu Wei', or effortless action. It's about going with the flow and not forcing things to happen. Sound familiar? It should, because that's exactly where Grimsby Town finds itself right now. Sitting ninth in the table, we're not in a position to panic. We're not Carlisle, flinging signings at the wall to see what sticks.

Carlisle's approach seems to be the footballing equivalent of trying to revise by cramming an entire textbook into your brain the night before an exam. Sure, you've done something, but the end result? Messy at best. Grimsby has seen what happens when you act in haste during January. We've lived through the signings of Joey Jones, Jamal Fyfield, and Stefan Payne – the last of whom provided the kind of fireworks you don't want, head-butting Felipe Morais before never playing for us again.

Of course, January hasn't been all bad. Curtis Thompson arrived this time last year, helping us retain our EFL status with some proper midfield grit. And who could forget Gav Holohan? January 2022 brought us the penalty king himself, delivering us to EFL promotion glory and steering us past Southampton in that FA Cup fairy tale. Those ice-cold spot kicks under the floodlights are etched in Mariners' history.
But let's not pretend every January brings a Holohan or a Thompson. For every savvy signing, there's a Bim Pepple lurking around the corner. Chesterfield have decided to gamble on the former Mariner, a player who made 15 appearances without so much as threatening the onion bag. It's enough to make you wonder whether they've read the wrong scouting report.

Still, fans are desperate for movement. The message boards are full of clamouring cries for new blood, and I get it. There's something intoxicating about the promise of fresh faces, even if the reality often falls short. We're football fans and hope is in our DNA.

But Wu Wei isn't just about doing nothing for the sake of it; it's about knowing when to act and ensuring that action is purposeful. Under Artell, under Stockwood and Pettit, under Jamestown Analytics that seems to be the approach – patient, deliberate, and with an eye toward quality rather than quantity. After all, January is as much about resisting the urge to panic as it is about strengthening. The trick is not just signing anyone, but the right someone. We've been burned before, haven't we?

And that's why I'm still holding onto the hope that Géza Dávid Turi might just be that someone. When a player compares themselves to Sergio Busquets, it's either the talk of a deluded Friday night drunk in 'The Swashy' or the quiet confidence of a man who knows exactly what he brings to the table. If Turi's self-assessment holds any water, maybe this careful, considered approach will deliver a midfield maestro from the Faroe Islands to Blundell Park.

Until then, let's trust in Wu Wei. (Mostly!)