So, in particular order.............
INTERNATIONALS: The England friendly last night, a 3-0 win over Peru, reminds us that the World Cup is almost upon us. (As do numerous international friendlies at Craven Cottage, a weird recent phenomenon?!) Pundits and commentators were quick to point out the meteroic ascent of youngsters such as Raheem Sterling and John Stones to international recognition. Sterling came through QPR's academy but left at 16 to join Liverpool, Stones is a Yorkshire lad who began at Barnsley before moving to Merseyside a couple of years later than Sterling. Have Greg Dyke's proposals re; League 3 considered their impact on those youngsters produced within the status quo? Will we still 'require' B-teams if these two help lead us to World Cup glory? ;-)
Talking about the World Cup, there is an Akpa Akpro in the Ivory Coast squad! Apparently Jean Daniel A-A plays for Toulouse, and is part of a trio of footballing brothers; Jean-Jacques and our old friend Jean-Louis, who has just been released by Tranmere. Who knew that there was even a chance of an Akpa Akpro in Rio 2014? The Cote D'Ivoire play in Group C, so see you in the last 16 JD?
Tranmere is in the North West close to Wales and friend of the Trust Pat Bell has written an article for the GTFC award winning programme about Welsh Mariner links; reprinted on Cod Almighty here; http://www.codalmighty.com/site/ca.php?article=4940 To that I would like to add some substitutes; defender Alan Neilson, striker Ian Walsh (both full Welsh internationals) and current GTFC winger Scott Neilson, who comes from the Jones Welsh footballing family. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Jones_(Welsh_footballer) (Did I mention it was a mish-mash rambling random blog?)
EVENTS:
Next Friday sees the '98 Trust Reunion Event at the club, a host of former players will be attending to reminisce over that glorious double Wembley season.
And at the end of next month, the aforementioned Pat and myself will be ascending Snowdon with hundreds of football fans from across England and Wales, with the aim of forging links and raising funds for the GTFC youth team. Please sponsor us via the usual channels!
PLAYER MOVEMENTS
Since our last blogs about retained/released lists and the 3 new young pros, Messrs Hedge (Telford), Southwell (Boston Utd) and Charlesworth (Boston Town) have found new footballing homes, whilst we await news on others such as Andy Cook, linked with Barrow, Andi Thanoj, linked with mainland Europe,and Alex Rodman, linked with either something exciting or Scottish football...
Now that season ticket prices have been announced, see official site and thisisgrimsby, perhaps an influx of new signings is imminent?
Anyway, that's all for now. Enjoy the post-season and the World Cup, see you at events, pre-season, and/or in cyberspace via our Fishy/twitter friends,
UTM!