Skip to main content

Grimsby are every bit the 21st century football club

I have to admit I enjoyed last night’s battering (as every media outlet is calling it) of Manchester United, but there is a little more to the Cleethorpes-based club than meets the eye: https://www.thetimes.com/article/d25b79a8-fea2-4842-a99f-58cdc2b4a9b3

In every other respect, though, United’s Carabao Cup second-round opponents are every bit the modern 21st-century football club: buoyed by ambitious investors, cutting-edge data and progressive coaching. Most intriguing of all, perhaps, is Grimsby’s nascent partnership with Jamestown Analytics, the guiding hand behind Brighton & Hove Albion’s much vaunted recruitment.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the United co-owner, was memorably scathing in his appraisal of United’s data department last season, which he described as being in the “last century”. Yet Grimsby appear to have snared a competitive edge in their search for talent that the other clubs in League Two — or United, for that matter — can only dream of.

Jamestown is an offshoot of Starlizard, the gambling consultancy founded in 2006, with close ties to the Brighton owner, Tony Bloom. Jamestown chooses its partners, not the other way round, and Grimsby’s “council-estate kid” co-owner turned tech entrepreneur, Jason Stockwood, and Andrew Pettit, a venture capitalist whose family owned a butcher’s shop in the town for almost a century, impressed Bloom with their vision for the club during their voyage to an FA Cup quarter-final in 2023, where they lost to Brighton.

Coaching was not always in manager Dave Artell’s plans. Afternoons spent on the sofa after training with his home-town club, Rotherham United, watching American crime dramas like Murder, She Wrote and Diagnosis: Murder, prompted an application to study for a bachelor’s degree in forensic biology, a postgraduate certificate in biomedical sciences and a bachelor’s degree in forensic and analytical science.

A diploma in football management from the University of Liverpool is more relevant, but this is a club whose hard hit surroundings can be misleading.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fulham requires big funding from owner

After lengthy delays, Fulham’s shiny, new Riverside Stand has finally opened, creating “a unique Thameside destination with first class facilities for supporters and partners on match days, as well as for the wider community year-round”. This ambitious project has increased Craven Cottage’s capacity by around 4,000 to 29,600, while it has also taken advantage of the club’s fantastic location and wealthy catchment area by including two Michelin star restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool, corporate hospitality and event space, all benefiting from views of the Thames. Chief executive Alistair Mackintosh observed, “Fulham is the sort of club that can have a business class or first class and have fans that turn left on a plane.” Indeed, there is also an exclusive members club – with a football season ticket as an optional extra. It’s fair to say that “the times they are a-changing”, as this is a long way from the traditional pie and a pint. However, in a world where clubs face the tw...
Post a Comment
Read more

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s...
1 comment
Read more

A poor financial record, but new hope at Everton

I recently saw an amusing video online in which a group of Everton fans were rebuked in jest for being hopeful.  Football fans in general tend to swing between excessive optimism and excessive pessimism, but for many it seems that moaning is in their bloodstream (Spurs fans probably take the trophy).  However, Everton fans have had plenty to moan about on and off the pitch.   Let’s hope that a new era is about to begin for this grand old club. Everton’s 2023/24 financial results covered a fairly momentous season, when they ended up 15th in the Premier League, though they would finished three places higher if they had not received an 8-point deduction for breaching the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Regulations (PSR). It was a worrying time for Everton fans, as the club faced a “perfect storm” of issues, including large financial losses, an ever increasing debt burden, a challenging stadium build and the tortuous sale of the club. There were eve...
Post a Comment
Read more