Artell Out  (triple merged)

I think it was a big mistake to insist on a particular playing style. First of all it rules out many managers. Secondly it rules out many players. Thirdly it takes no account of the current pool of players. To my mind you play to suit the players you have not the other way around. We claim to have a data driven approach but our insistence of playing the Grimsby Way seems to be based on nostalgia for a different era played under different constraints and not the reality of the assets we have. I predict Artell will be gone some time in 2024 and we will switch to a more pragmatic approach and maybe look at what the data we have is saying, not what we want it to say.

Artell's record to date D,W,D,L,L,W,L,D,L

Encouraging performances and results v MK Dons, Crewe and Newport defeat against organised Harrogate and unsurprising defeat at Mansfield. Then excellent performance at Salford followed by chaos at home for 3 games. I think prior to those 3 home games we were mostly getting it and seeing a direction.

On this basis I can only conclude that we have tried too much, too soon that we are not capable of in those home games although we saw our attacking potential v Notts, completely sacrificed defence. It's perhaps important not to let the last 3 games cloud the work which I can only hope Artell is putting in. It is understandable that we are starting to get worried looking over our shoulders but it is hard to find any alternative option than to trust, with some constructive criticism along the way.

Just to recap on the past 7 days of The Fishy then;

- We shouldn’t buy young players and sell them on, it makes us look weak and we should abandon that proven model immediately

- We should sack a manager after 6 weeks and before he’s been able to bring his own players in

- Playing with an identity is not the way to go, instead we should revert to being ‘tough to beat’ and get a short term fix in to address that

- Long term plan? Long term plans don’t work, better to turn into blind panic after a few bad games, when did long term plans ever work?


I do despair at times, we wonder why our town is miles behind everyone else in almost every aspect. We say we want positive change, yet we push back on that change at almost every possible opportunity.

Quoted from sam gy

I think we need to cut the guy some slack after being here for such a short space of time.

And let’s not forget what a difficult month this has been for the club with young Cameron’s passing and Callum’s diagnosis. This is only the second game we’ve played since all of that news.

I was a huge Hursty fan but this season under him was diabolical and that is largely down to the squad he assembled. A massive downgrade on last season.

I’ve seen enough to think it’ll come good under Artell….MK, Crewe, Notts, Salford. Some of the best football I’ve seen is play in donkeys years (not a high bar admittedly). Just need to learn how to play against the uglier sides and get points on the board very quickly.

Also need to replace some of the players (conteh) and characters (waterfall) that have left. Hopefully we can do that.

Only one of the games quoted is in the last month and that was an emotionally charged game. We’re very much on a downward trajectory performance wise.

He is the polar opposite to Hurst isn't he ?  in that tactically he only seems to think about his own team and doesn't pay much attention to the other  .

I'm hardly a lower league football wizz but watch a few games and even I knew Apter would rip Glennon or Mullarkey to bits it was just a question of which one - Michee's athletic ability may well have been worth a thought , but seems like he's out in the cold and will probably leave .

Artell  is coming over as increasingly nervous and scrambled in his interviews which is another worry .

I am spending increasing lengths of time in the bar rather than watching the game , let's not pull the wool over anyone's eyes the last 18 months at home on the whole have been nothing short of pathetic really , how we retain the 2500+ new ST holders after this lot I don't know, whether the club goes or manages to just hang on  .
The club has moved forward off the pitch , but on it , it's just seemingly reverted back to 'same old ' .

Very worried

Well, we’ve literally played 3 games within the last month and one of those was Notts County - a game I personally bloody loved!

Like I said above I’m still 100% supportive of Artell, hopefully all being well he’ll just slow down the rate of change a bit.

Like most of us on here despite watching football for the best part of half a century I don’t really know much about professional football coaching & management.

What I have a lot of experience in is change management in under performing organisations the first thing you do it fix the biggest fundamental issue holding things back & keep things really simple, people only have so much bandwidth.

Our biggest issue seems to have been we’re easy to beat as we can’t defend, you would think “making us hard to beat” aka fixing our defence would have been top of the “to do” list but in mid week Artell said they’d only just started work on the defence either side of the cancelled Harrogate game. He’s the manager and knows best but that approach seems to have left us looking at the bottom 2s results every Saturday & it’s only January FFS.

My view is that the players are as much to blame as anyone. It looks like a mix of will & skill stopping us progressing. There is a lack of application here from too many who either aren’t putting in the effort to apply themselves in terms of work rate or indeed just following instructions.

Look at the first goal yesterday again, Glennon stopped chasing before the scorer actually got his shot off. Eisa makes a good break, Rose drops off to pull the trigger but instead of passing to Rose, Eisa goes for the hero finish from a tight angle & fluffed it badly.

1878 came in & told us they’d be careful custodians and they’ve been more than true to their word, Artell has said similar & given the tools he will be for sure.

The problem is the players (excluding Rose & home town lad Clifton) don't get that they need to be better custodians of something that’s so important to us and start doing what they get paid for to get us moving up the table.

Oh & by the way the January window will not fix this unless we’re incredibly lucky with a couple of finds.

Quoted from pontoonlew

Just to recap on the past 7 days of The Fishy then;

- We shouldn’t buy young players and sell them on, it makes us look weak and we should abandon that proven model immediately

- We should sack a manager after 6 weeks and before he’s been able to bring his own players in

- Playing with an identity is not the way to go, instead we should revert to being ‘tough to beat’ and get a short term fix in to address that

- Long term plan? Long term plans don’t work, better to turn into blind panic after a few bad games, when did long term plans ever work?


I do despair at times, we wonder why our town is miles behind everyone else in almost every aspect. We say we want positive change, yet we push back on that change at almost every possible opportunity.

I think the point about the ‘long term plan’ is that we’re not ready for it, and it we’re not careful then that plan might have to be executed in the league below (again). I’m all for the way Artell wants us to play and his ‘identity’, and at times it’s looked good, but when it goes wrong it’s catastrophic, quite literally. I don’t think changing the manager at this moment is a wise move but he needs to stop being so stubborn, and if he can’t then this won’t end well for all parties.

Quoted from Mappers

He is the polar opposite to Hurst isn't he ?  in that tactically he only seems to think about his own team and doesn't pay much attention to the other  .

I'm hardly a lower league football wizz but watch a few games and even I knew Apter would rip Glennon or Mullarkey to bits it was just a question of which one - Michee's athletic ability may well have been worth a thought , but seems like he's out in the cold and will probably leave .

Artell  is coming over as increasingly nervous and scrambled in his interviews which is another worry .

I am spending increasing lengths of time in the bar rather than watching the game , let's not pull the wool over anyone's eyes the last 18 months at home on the whole have been nothing short of pathetic really , how we retain the 2500+ new ST holders after this lot I don't know, whether the club goes or manages to just hang on  .
The club has moved forward off the pitch , but on it , it's just seemingly reverted back to 'same old ' .

Very worried

I wouldn’t believe for a minute that Artell doesn’t look at the opposition, he even said a couple of weeks ago that he went home & watched a couple of our next opponents games.

I do not pay much attention to what a manager says (DA).  I do care what he does and doesn’t do.

Eg, not sure what Wood has shown in training to justify a start. The team set-up was clearly not working after 5 minutes.  It took until the 87th min to make real changes.  We struggled badly against an average team at home.

An equal concern is that other poor teams, or poorer teams are picking up points.  Colchester and Salford with away wins. Sutton got their second consecutive away point.  Including a draw at Mansfield.

At least FGR had the decency to lose and Donney have a defence as bad as ours.  Our safety cushion does not look very secure.  Our decent goal-difference is probably our strongest asset.  Very sad.

All the more reason with starting with a more experienced midfield yesterday.  Or changing it when it is very clear to all fans that it was not working.  He didn’t.

Some results and performances have been encouraging recently.  Not sustained though.  DA said that yesterday was nowhere near an acceptable standard. He also said that the performance was worse than the 6-1 defeat to Walsall.  

Ok, but you are the manager!