Fenty: Better Research Needed

By: Rob Sedgwick
Date: 16/05/2011

JOHN Fenty has criticised the player acquisition policy of previous manager Neil Woods, citing the cases of Charles Ademeno, Rob Duffy and Serge Makofo as being poor business for the club.

The Mariners paid fees for all three players and gave them long contracts, but they are all now surplus to requirements and free to leave the Mariners.

Mr Fenty believes that better research into player acquisition may help the Mariners, rather than just the traditional scouting system which the club have previously employed. He has identified Internet-based statistics as a source of additional information available to the club which the new managerial duo have shown him.

Fenty told the Grimsby Telegraph: "I think what we'll find is that these managers are as a thorough as you can be in doing their homework; I've seen how they go about doing things.

"They are literate, they can use computers and I'm confident they will be thorough and we'll make less mistakes going forward with regards player acquisition than we have in the past."

Grim Rob Says: In reality we have a bit of a chicken and egg situation here. The players John Fenty has highlighted would probably still be playing next season for Grimsby had Neil Woods remained as manager of the club because he had more faith in them. Inevitably whenever anyone new comes in they have their own ideas, and will want to make changes from the previous regime. Sacking a manager therefore can be much more expensive than just the cost of replacing the man himself. But I'm all for using more research on getting players - having read the book Moneyball about the achievements of the Oakland Athletics in Baseball I think it's a good idea.

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