My Kingdom for a Striker!

By: Steff Keightley
Date: 11/03/2001

Answering an advert on the Internet, Roy Essandoh never thought, in his wildest dreams, that he would score the winning goal for a 2nd Division side, equal 16th in the table, against a Premiership side, who are 6th, but today it happened in the FA Cup for him and Wycombe.

A Striker! A Striker! My Kingdom for a Striker!

Essandoh's agent saw an advert on the Internet from Wycombe Wanderers. Due to their excess of injured strikers, six in total, they desperately required a striker...ring any bells yet?

Essandoh is a relative unknown, of Irish/Ghanaian origin and, while playing in Finland, his agent contacted him regarding Wycombe's plea and two games as substitute later and he is the hero of the hour.

If Wycombe can do it, why can't Grimsby Town? A good question. If I knew the answer I would probably be a football manager, but I am not and have no talent or wish to be one, it is a thankless task.

The reason for this article is the fact that there is a plethora of talented strikers out there, transfer-listed, on frees or with no clubs at the moment. Why can't we get these players to come to Grimsby? Are they scared of the name? The area? The other players/management? Money? The Club? Even the board? Another question that I cannot answer, but wish I could. Not doing very well am I?

There has to be an obvious reason for this lack of enthusiasm to come to a small club like ours, but why? We want Premiership football, we are getting a new stadium, soon so we are lead to believe, but we cannot attract the players. OK, there is that one little thing that has already been mentioned, money - this is very close to the heart of the matter. Do we, or do we not, have the money to bring in new blood? That is what we need.

Somewhere along the line there is a problem, which needs to be rectified as soon as possible. The club needs to look deep within itself to try to change its appearance to those which it wishes to attract. We are in real trouble as it is - WE NEED A STRIKER.

Town were a toothless beast today. No cohesion, they were not playing as a unit and had no bite up front. I'm sorry to say this, but even when Bradley Allen came on they still did not look like scoring. We have no-one at all.

I can here the voices at Town saying, 'All right then smart ar*e, you can come out with this, but who do you suggest'. No problems at all.

With the help of a friend of mine I have compiled a list of suitable strikers who are either out of contract, on a free or have no club at the moment. I hope the club takes this list and looks very carefully at it, as there might just be a 'rough diamond' amongst them.