Danny Coyne Rebuffs Town's Plea To Go!

By: Bill Osborne
Date: 10/10/2002

GRIMSBY Town Football Club are close to administration and need to cut more than £500,000 from their expenditure within the next few weeks. Unless they are able to do that, the club will have to apply for administration to avoid bankruptcy.

The only solution the club have at the present time is to offload two players to cut the wages bill. They can do that by either transferring them or finding other clubs to take them on a season long loan thereby removing the burden of their wages

I present here my understanding of the current situation:

Two football clubs have, over the last two weeks, made offers that will assist the club. I will not name the clubs concerned as that may compromise any negotiations that are currently going on.

But both clubs have offered to take over Danny Coyne's contract, which has approximately 21 months to run.

Both clubs have made offers of a significant increase in his personal terms if he signs for them.

One club in a lower division has offered an increase in his personal terms that can be described as impressive. But the other, more high profile club, has made an offer that would almost double Coyne's present package and it is my understanding that they have offered him a three year deal which will obviously give him more security than Grimsby in their present perilous financial situation.

Unfortunately, Danny Coyne has declined both offers. My understanding is that he wants to sit out his contract at Grimsby in the hope that he gets a better offer when his contract runs out.

The club have had talks with both Danny and his agent and outlined the severe financial problems the club have in fulfilling Danny's personal terms and have pointed out that should he remain at Grimsby, it could force the club into administration and they want him to accept one of the two offers made to him in order to help save the club..

The advice given to Danny has been that if Town do go into administration, they will still have to pay him, (which is true.)

Notwithstanding that request from the club, the offers have not been taken up.

The club nor the fans would like to see Danny Coyne go, but there comes a time when the club is more important than a player. That time has now arrived at Grimsby Town and my personal opinion is that Coyne is getting bad advice.

His rejection of the two offers may well throw the club into administration and those who believe that might be a good thing should be aware that unless someone is prepared to inject capital into the club, and there have been no offers yet, the club could easily be liquidated.

Danny Coyne has always been treated well by the club and, in their hour of need, one would have expected that he would understand the club's plight.

One could understand his reluctance if the offers had not been good, but an offer by a higher profile club that will almost double his present earnings is what most players in today's market would give an arm and a leg for.

Danny Coyne must think again and so should his agent. The offers are still open to him.

The future of this club will depend upon him making the right decision.

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