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There you have it. We are non league again and in homage to @vivarovers weâll do our best to go through our season. It didnât include arson but it does include a headbutt a snake-oil salesman in a flat cap and a fraudster not sure thereâs a difference between those 2. Enjoy!
To set the scene GTFC has been controlled in one form or other by John Fenty (JF) for 17 years. His tenure includes 2 relegations to non league. A lost court case to Boston Utd. A number of sexist comments & destroying a 10 year oldâs Newport County flag and many other disasters.
GTFC ended the 2019-2020 season with a 2-0 win over local rivals Scunthorpe with player of the season and League Two goal of the season scorer Charles Vernam rounding off the win. Here is Billy Clarke drinking a coffee thrown at him from the fans who rent that ground on the day.
Things unravel fast after. âOllieâ isnât heard from by the players till he reappears in August but players agree to a -25% COVID clause and wonât be paid in full till fans are back. All out of contract players are told to go. Such as dynamo Hessenthaler and other key assets.
It results in well respected Assistant Manager Anthony Limbrick being unable to cover the costs of his travel from London after asking for the pay to be covered heâs shown the door leaving the club without an assistant. https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/grimsby-assistant-anthony-limbrick-furlough-4489163?utm_source=sharebar&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sharebar
Other clubs jettison players too but none add COVID clauses. Staff are furloughed & told to take paycuts. The training ground & BP are left to ruin with no groundsman our pitch ends up looking like below but player of the year C.Vernam has a year extension so all is not lost.
Charles Vernam signs for Burton Albion. The club claim they are told not to bother starting the extension during COVID. Vernam says he requested ÂŁ50 more a week and is offered ÂŁ100 less than his original deal. Another player is told to get a part time job if he wants more money.
Ian Holloway (IH) though couldnât be happier âThis is the best run club Iâve ever been atâ He also says his phone has been melting itâs so busy! And to expect exciting signings. These include Ira Jackson Jr from Folkestone in step 8 and Touray Sisay from Aberystwyth.
Meanwhile Town fans raise ÂŁ120,000 in share purchases, auction items and Crowdfunders to support the club. This 4 years after fans had raised a similar amount to get the club promoted from Non league and were subsequently told it didnât help and to shut up by a director.
Town round off their preseason with their one and only friendly against local team @CleeTownFC step 7. Luke Spokes signs from Taunton but the club fail to cover the holiday of the social media guy and forget to announce his arrival. He appears on the team sheet to much confusion.
Other signings are slow with IH already bemoaning the COVID clause. Whoâd have thunk it? IH is also on the board and is putting ÂŁ100k in to the club as an investment so would have had to agree to the clause too. But we did sign a former Rangers defender.
IH called him the Van Dijk of League 2 but Bilel Mohsni is let go after 3 months as stated by IH in a post match interview. Mohsni takes to Twitter to say he has not been told heâs gone and will be at training on Monday. This outburst reportedly costs the club an extra ÂŁ5k https://twitter.com/bilel_mohsni/status/1330579398542700545
This new account includes a video of Mohsni training on Cleethorpes beach where he is being outpaced by the Jack Russell behind him. He is last seen walking down the dual carriageway 3 miles out of town and doesnât reappear till he joins Barnet two weeks later. He lasts a month. https://twitter.com/bilel_mohsni/status/1330605725513625600
@IanOllie7 becomes more erratic bullying @JohnTondeur during interviews and throwing blame at everyone including his scouts for the 5-0 defeat to Tranmere.
âThey played a completely different system today.â
They didnât.
He tells former player Billy Clarke to shut up after GTFC
âThey played a completely different system today.â
They didnât.
He tells former player Billy Clarke to shut up after GTFC
postpone the game with Bradford before informing them, due to a COVID outbreak. IH states
âWe run a tight ship on COVID.â
GTFC become the only club to be punished by @EFL for COVID breaches as IH is caught by EFL sharing darts at the training ground. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-9139187/Grimsby-Town-club-fined-breaching-Covid-social-distancing-safety-rules.html
âWe run a tight ship on COVID.â
GTFC become the only club to be punished by @EFL for COVID breaches as IH is caught by EFL sharing darts at the training ground. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-9139187/Grimsby-Town-club-fined-breaching-Covid-social-distancing-safety-rules.html
Next for his ire is 4 time Player of the season winner goalkeeper & captain James McKeown. He is criticised for not playing out from the back. In League 2. James a great shot stopper and long time Mariner tries his best to do so. It doesnât end well, off the pitch its even worse!
Multi convicted fraudster and con artist Alex May aka Alex Kapikanya is caught at Blundell Park by the local media, accompanied by Fenty and members of the board. Neither the board or Trust who have 2 members on the board declare his interest to fans. https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/alex-may-alick-kapikanya-grimsby-4792583
The Monday after the story breaks May is interviewed on local radio where states he is going to purchase a controlling share of the club. He reassures fans he wouldnât be on the board because he canât legally, what with all the fraud he did. https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/fraudsters-jailed-over-35m-mortgage-7023550
It also emerges Fenty and May have created a company called Town Centre Living. Fenty as Deputy Leader of NE Lincs Council and with responsibilities for redevelopment of the town resigns in disgrace as Deputy Leader as his reputation is left in tatters. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-55313770
Chairman Phillip Day, an actual lawyer, who owns just ÂŁ3k of shares in the club goes on radio to defend May. He states no one suffered from May fraudulently remortgaging houses and stealing the identity of the elderly and it was just businesses. Thank god heâs not my lawyer! https://twitter.com/humbersidesport/status/1341841139159187458
IH resigns 3 days after tweeting he is staying. He cites that he wonât work with new owners who have the temerity to contact him & much prefer owners who work with fraudsters. He leaves the club with 7 loan players, teetering on relegation & losing to bottom of National League https://twitter.com/ianollie7/status/1341675118666387458
Dag & Red in the FA Cup. He also leaves us with a last minute contract extension for failing centre back Luke Waterfall and a 67 year old goalkeeping coach who he hired 24 hours before his departure. His Town career amounts to 8 hours work much like Ian. We never saw that ÂŁ100k
A consortium consisting of Andrew Pettit, Tom Shutes & Jason Stockwood (APJS) (spoilers) re-emerge with an intent to buy the club after fans lead a boycott of the Morecambe game purchasing iFollow passes from them rather than GTFC and plastering the club in pirate flags and alike
In the week leading up to Xmas multiple statements are made by the club and APJS.
Essentially the statements say.
APJS: âWe want to buy the club but weâre not paying it all at once the club is fuckedâ
JF: âPay it all at once or piss offâ https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/fenty-rejects-shutes-shares-grimsby-4829515
Essentially the statements say.
APJS: âWe want to buy the club but weâre not paying it all at once the club is fuckedâ
JF: âPay it all at once or piss offâ https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/fenty-rejects-shutes-shares-grimsby-4829515
The final statement from the Fenty is sent at 00:30 on 23/12/20
JF demands an answer in 14 hrs on Xmas Eve of full payment on his shares & loans (ÂŁ2.5m approx) by seasons end. Citing APJS dont need assurances if they can run a club successfully. https://www.grimsby-townfc.co.uk/news/2020/december/john-fentys-offer-to-the-tom-shutes-consortium/
JF demands an answer in 14 hrs on Xmas Eve of full payment on his shares & loans (ÂŁ2.5m approx) by seasons end. Citing APJS dont need assurances if they can run a club successfully. https://www.grimsby-townfc.co.uk/news/2020/december/john-fentys-offer-to-the-tom-shutes-consortium/
Itâs hard to make a ream of statements exciting but I canât underplay what a complete and utter shit show these few weeks were. So much so it over shadowed Neil Bishop all but crying on the radio during Scunnyâs defeat to Grimsby in Humbersideâs El Shittico.
Comedian @LloydGriffith who was key in the May takeover reveal, produces an article for @codalmighty further outlining the fiasco behind the scenes at the club detailing a catalog of players who have been shafted by poor contract negotiations with JF
http://www.codalmighty.com/site/ca.php?article=7768
http://www.codalmighty.com/site/ca.php?article=7768
Grimsby lose 3-1 to Morecambe on Boxing Day where Mattie Pollock gets the consolidation goal and becomes the clubs top goal scorer in the league with 3. Heâs still top today with 3. Oh and heâs a 19 year old Centre Back who has been injured since February.
The club also put in a complaint to the BBC on @LloydGriffith shouting abuse at JF during the game. They forget he is is on co comms for the day and so the whole game is recorded. The complaint isnât upheld.
Paul Hurst the most successful manager in 20 years returns to the club as manager but with the look of a parent who has returned home to find the kids have had an unscheduled house party slapped it on Facebook and 3000 people turned up.
Its apparent takeover talks are going well as no one would believe Hurst would rejoin the club with the likelihood of JF in charge. After promotion back to the EFL. JF denied Hurst a fitness coach reportedly saying. âWhen does a fitness coach get you 3 points on a Saturdayâ
Hurst does his best to fight relegation and ends up having to replace the entire squad of Hollowayâs dossers and kids who have fallen apart quicker than his excuses on TV. IH has had to remove replies to his tweets as most are now full of abuse from Grimsby fans.
The team becomes harder to beat but with strikers like Matt Green on ÂŁ2.5k a week till today not having a shot on target since Dec 1st it ultimately looks hopeless. Fans can also bemoan last minute goals to Stevenage 96 min, Carlisle 92 min, Salford 88 min. Costing 5 value points
Hursts teams battle as they try their best to gel but with a club destined for non league and a limited budget it appears signings are barrel scraping with former Town striker Lenny The Shop John Lewis and Giles Coke sign from non league south Hereford.
Striker Montel Gibson who said he was âdriving a Tesco vanâ before signing for Town on an unheard of 3 year deal decides heâs missing his van and host a gender reveal party during lockdown. He hasnât played for the club since.
Tom Shutes leaves the consortium at the 11th hour citing âPersonal reasonsâ for the change. Both sides put out a statement asking for fans to be patient as a way forward is discussed and no other statement will be made at this time. 15 minutes later Fenty releases a statement.
Living statue and part time striker Stefan Payne headbutts 92 year old winger and teammate Filipe Morais. Payne for once breaks in to more than a jaunt and is chased to the team dressing room by the referee to be sent off. Grimsby lose 1-0.
Midfielder Danny Rose (not the good one) takes to Instagram to proclaim technology is being used to control the climate after a brief flurry of snow in April. Town fans hope that the same technology could be used to make him an effective midfielder. It doesnât and he isnât.
Speaking of Salford Declan Bourne allowed us to witness the most incompetent refereeing display since myself in year 6 at Keelby school.
Itâs yet to be investigated whether Bourne is a United fan or just intimidated by Roy Keane in the stands. @MikeyMcMahon add the vid
Itâs yet to be investigated whether Bourne is a United fan or just intimidated by Roy Keane in the stands. @MikeyMcMahon add the vid
Even after victories against Barrow and Bolton, Town are just frankly not good enough. 44 players used in the league yet still playing our game with Oldham with just 5 players on the bench. Yet youâll struggle to find a Town fan without a beaming smile on their face.
The recent shirt amnesty shows the club is changing with the new ownership la influence who take control in May! The club has promised to be the first football club to be a @BCorpUK which focuses on more than profits. Weâre starting the change in non league but itâs starting! https://twitter.com/krispygreen84/status/1384509819957092355
That concludes my TED talk on how not to run a football club. Roll on May 5th new owners and a Fentyless future. Up The Mariners! #GTFC
Things this thread missed. Sisays shirt on début not having his number on the back of his shirt.
Jay Matete being left behind by the team bus.
Jay Matete being left behind by the team bus.
