How has this been allowed to happen?

Having seen first hand how difficult the Conference is to get out of, I naively thought that we would never allow ourselves to get into a scenario where we would get relegated again. Although I was always aware of JF's penny-pinching instincts, I believed, again naively, that even he would see the bigger picture and see the massive lost revenue if we got relegated again.

But, if anything, he has made even poorer decisions since we got promoted. Jolley aside, every single managerial appointment has been absolutely shocking. I mean you'd struggle to see how any could've been any worse. Right from the word go we squandered the momentum we had from promotion through, guess what? yes, penny-pinching. The fiascos such as "you lose trust, Matt" and Marley telling fans to shut up have proven the contempt those at the top have for our fanbase.

Bignot was an appointment on the cheap, I'm pretty sure Jolley was too but he just got lucky. Then you have the Covid-clauses. Rightly, no footballer worth his salt gave us a second look. We can blame Runaway all we want for this season but it's rooted in a typical Fenty stroke. And you can just see the players we've signed in this window are the rubbish that nobody else wanted. That's what being rubbish does for you.

It's so Grimsby Town to have made the worst of a bad situation like Covid. I thought us being financially relatively well run would be able to exploit an otherwise precarious financial hell in football, but no of course not. We made a mess of that.

All of this was predictable and avoidable but we didn't. We made the same mistakes all over again and are now reaping the "rewards" of falling back into non-league where we will have battle fatigue as a club. That day at Wembley won't feel anywhere near as good. The novelty will be gone and desperation to get back even greater.

Suggest you e-mail Fenty and ask him to explain.

Quoted from RonMariner

Suggest you e-mail Fenty and ask him to explain.

Somebody asked fenty why Marcus Bignot was sacked at “that” fans forum if I remember correctly, I don’t think he gave a clear answer.

Priority has been to keep costs as low as possible and spin the narrative that the custodians are being financially responsible, when in fact the overriding inclination has been to take money out the pot to repay a certain individual. No investment in the squad or facilities beyond the bare minimum to function. The only money going into the club has been from the fans and you have to trust that they use that income to build a competitive team and coaching staff. They have failed over and over.

Men of little footballing nous and a parochial outlook.

I see we have a new analyst at the club. That wouldn't have happened in the past because it would have been seen as a waste of money, despite most other clubs having them.

Short sighted cheapskates have left us in the lurch yet again.

Quoted from Mariner Ronnie

Somebody asked fenty why Marcus Bignot was sacked at “that” fans forum if I remember correctly, I don’t think he gave a clear answer.

The same way most managers end up out of the club, fell out with Fenty as his ambitions were not something the club wanted to pay for. Results somewhat too but he was hardly given much time. Think his personality rubbed Fenty the wrong way from day one as it did many people on here. One argument after a game later and he was gone.

Still not as funny as the story I heard on the reasons Mike Newell was gone, it read like a kinky love story with secrets, backstabbing and two men with sweaty brows and a tie being pulled.

How has this been allowed to happen?

Somebody sold his fish company for a few million and thought he could run a football club the same way.

End of

Quoted from ginnywings

Priority has been to keep costs as low as possible and spin the narrative that the custodians are being financially responsible, when in fact the overriding inclination has been to take money out the pot to repay a certain individual. No investment in the squad or facilities beyond the bare minimum to function. The only money going into the club has been from the fans and you have to trust that they use that income to build a competitive team and coaching staff. They have failed over and over.

Men of little footballing nous and a parochial outlook.

I see we have a new analyst at the club. That wouldn't have happened in the past because it would have been seen as a waste of money, despite most other clubs having them.

Short sighted cheapskates have left us in the lurch yet again.

Russell Slade had a full-time analyst and that worked out well?

Probably the reason the club didn't invest in another.

The same people making the same mistakes over and over again . Then we had some fans who actually supported this by donating money to a football club that didn't need it . As Many of you have pointed out already Mr Fenty knows how to run a business . The mentality runs very deep in this club and unless the new owners do a clean sweep then nothing will change

My instincts are that JF thought our time in the conference was a success, in fact I think he may even have said as much
Winning more than losing
Same gates, lower wages
Money spinning Wembley appearances
Making a profit and repaying loans
JF being a big fish in a small pond
If true, puts the last 16 years into perspective

That Buckstown is true.
Problem is as a business the club probably did make money and gain more exposure as a non league club than it did being perennial strugglers at the bottom of League Two.......in a rather shortsighted way....

The loss of League monies, the knock on effect of not funding the academy , reducing backroom staff over those seasons just undermined our long term future once we returned and the annual press release of " a competitive budget" being set just says all you need to know about the mentality. Not a penny spent in speculating to accumulate.

Those hard seasons in non league, the rallying of the support, the bonding of the team Hurst built all destroyed in a flash by expecting a manager with a "competitive budget" but no extra staff to compete in a Division we hadnt kept up with in soo many ways.

Releasing so many of the squad the fans had built a rapport/affinity with before we put the season tickets on sale, raising the prices after the O.P efforts, budget and staff not on a par with your rivals.

Hopefully that John@gtfc e-mail account will soon get automatic replies "John is no longer associated with GTFC"

Quoted from arryarryarry

Russell Slade had a full-time analyst and that worked out well?

Probably the reason the club didn't invest in another.

You should change your username to Mr Au Contraire.

Quoted from ginnywings

You should change your username to Mr Au Contraire.

I apologise if a simple fact upset you.

Responsibility lays at the door of Fenty and the board.

They didnt want the season to start. (neither did Holloway)

When they finally realised it was going ahead they brought in a raft of non-league and academy players. Holloway brought them in but how much £ did he have to spend.?? Plenty of blame to share out there. From the outside looking it seems Fenty didnt want to put any more £ in as he wanted out.

What a well run club we are!!  So we kept being told. About to be a non-league club soon. A club that has done little to improve since it got back into the League. Season after season of shite and flirting with relegation has led to this. Almost inevitable with or without Covid. Blaming Covid too easy though for such a well run club we managed the situation worse than anyone else. A total intercourse up.

Had Holloway and that team stayed we would have got relegated.

Hurst has come in and brought almost a new team with him. Yet the result is nothing has changed.

Too easy to play against. Dont create a lot and dont score a lot. Lack a reliable source of goals (that has been the case for a while now). In some ways hard to be too damning on Hurst with what he inherited mid season but that said his appointment has been a huge disappointment .It had given me brief hope we could get out of the mess. I was wrong.

Quoted from buckstown

My instincts are that JF thought our time in the conference was a success, in fact I think he may even have said as much
Winning more than losing
Same gates, lower wages
Money spinning Wembley appearances
Making a profit and repaying loans
JF being a big fish in a small pond
If true, puts the last 16 years into perspective

That was the case in only 2 years.

2012 (£142k) and 2016 (£59k) were the only years we made a profit in the Conference. Those years saw a reduction of £50k and £35k respectively in Directors' Loans.

Directors' Loans did go down a whopping £357k in 2011 though we didn't make a profit, so I suspect it was something to do with share issues. Maybe it was when Mike Parker made a big new investment in shares, giving us the wherewithal to pay off some of the directors' loans. I stand ready to have my facts correct by a rarely seen poster.

Quoted from DB

How has this been allowed to happen?

Somebody sold his fish company for a few million and thought he could run a football club the same way.

End of

Exactly this. He is clearly not competent at running a football club and is too stubborn to admit it (or is just blind to the fact).

The latest example: did you see the news that we've signed a performance analyst? (https://www.grimsby-townfc.co.uk/news/2021/march/first-team-performance-analyst-appointed/). I'm not being funny but I worked at FC Halifax Town for a bit during my undergrad years when they were working their way up through National League North and back into the National League for the first time since reformation... **even they** had a performance analyst!

We are so behind the times it's scarcely believable. (Hurst's comments are quite funny in that article, too.)

Quoted from buckstown

My instincts are that JF thought our time in the conference was a success, in fact I think he may even have said as much
Winning more than losing
Same gates, lower wages
Money spinning Wembley appearances
Making a profit and repaying loans
JF being a big fish in a small pond
If true, puts the last 16 years into perspective

I think someone posted data that showed our income dropped by about 400 to 500k a year when we were outside the EFL.

If we go down we will get a parachute payment for at least one year this time I think?