GTFC Statement

By: Bill Osborne
Date: 29/07/2003

TODAY, Grimsby Town Football Club have issued an official statement clarifying the situation regarding "the ten new faces" which has been causing some confusion. The statement seems to blame the Grimsby Telegraph for any misunderstanding. But is that fair?

The Official Statement

THE Grimsby Town board wishes to correct misleading information conveyed to our supporters by the Grimsby Telegraph.

For clarity, we re-iterate, in part, our statement issued on May 30, 2003: Simply, the board has decided to provide Paul Groves with a budget to build the squad up to 25 players.

Paul agreed this was a reasonable size for the second division and would allow for continued development of our young players.

The number of contracted players as of May 20 totalled 11 professionals plus two third-year YT's.

In order to build a capable squad, it was agreed that Paul would consider out of contract players internally and externally.

Newly contracted players include Iain Anderson, Marcel Cas, Tony Crane, Des Hamilton, John McDermott, Stacy Coldicott, Chris Bolder, Graham Hockless, Bradley Hughes, Iain Ward, Kirk Wheeler and Greg Young. Not forgetting the valuable progress made by Wes Parker. Danny Coyne has been replaced by Aidan Davison.

The present squad total stands at 23. We are actively pursuing two players but will not allow our manager to be pressurised into signing players to 'make up the numbers' rather than create a team jigsaw.

We trust you will join with us in wishing him every success.END

It was you who first entered the numbers game by announcing that Paul Groves would be given sufficient funds to purchase "10 players."

Most sensible people would have assumed that the 10 would include some of the previous members of the squad who were out of contract.

In an interview on Radio Humberside, you confirmed the 10 new player figure, leading many to believe that these 10 would be in addition to the out of contract players.

The situation was so confusing, I contacted the club for clarification. The answer I was given was, that the funds given to Paul Groves were, sufficient to obtain 10 players. How he spent those funds was up to him. I assumed by that statement that the 10 would include some past squad members out of contract, which seemed a sensible strategy to me.

But it has not been officially clarified until today, so there is no point in blaming the Grimsby Telegraph. Get your own house in order first.

In the meantime we wish Paul Groves success in his quest to create a squad capable of taking us back to our rightful place. The first division!

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