The Groves Move - Will it Happen?

By: Bill Osborne
Date: 14/06/2001

THE NEWS that Alan Buckley has made a move to take Grimsby skipper Paul Groves to Lincoln City does not come as a great surprise as Paul and Buckley have enjoyed a long relationship having been together on 4 different occasions and both have a great liking and respect for each other.

What are the possibilities of it happening?

Groves has indicated many times that when he finishes as a player he would like to continue his career in football either as a coach or a manager and the move to Sincil Bank could be the beginning of his new career.

Although he recently signed a new 2 year contract with Grimsby rumoured to be at £2,000 a week it has now been confirmed that a clause in his contract appears to allow him to move if a coaching job is offered to him.

Manager, Lennie Lawrence, claimed "The clause only applies to a manager's job, but if something really attractive comes up you can't stand in his way."

However, Grimsby Town press officer Tim Harvey told planetfootball.com: "No secret has been made that Paul and Alan have a mutual respect for each other but the story seems to have come from the fact that somebody has found out that Paul has this clause in his contract.

"It does also mean that if a club offered him a coaching position then, looking at the agreement that him and Lennie have, Grimsby would be obliged to let him leave. As yet there's been no approach from Lincoln."

It is also reported that both Paul Groves and Alan Buckley are on holiday in Florida. There has been no confirmation that this is accurate or that they have met each other there but the Lincoln chairman (Rob Bradley) has supposedly given Buckley the go-ahead to bring Groves in and sees it as killing two birds with one stone - i.e. they pay one wage for a quality player and assistant manager as opposed to paying two separate salaries.

Buckley did say earlier this year: "I can see why people would link me with Grovesie for obvious reasons. There are bound to be one or two players from the club that I'm linked with but there's nothing in that as far as I'm concerned."

But he also said that he wants to take players to Sincil Bank that he already knows. (not necessarily Grimsby Town players ) and his signing of Kingsley Black is proof of his intent.

On the other hand, there's a lot of talk in football circles that David Platt is unhappy with Forest's lack of ambition and, despite what the chairman has been saying, there's still a fair chance that he'll go to Southampton.

The story goes that it's a matter of time before Nigel Clough leaves Burton Albion to become Forest manager - taking Stuart Pearce with him as his assistant. This is supposedly why Pearce is stalling on signing a new contract with West Ham.

Groves started his career at Burton Albion. This could be his perfect route into league management courtesy of Clough jnr.

Who knows?

Not me!

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