HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF – PART EIGHT

The Ivano Bonetti campaign differed from the fundraising efforts of the supporters’ organisations, youth development associations and local business community, which I have described in the previous seven instalments, in at least one major respect.

Its forerunners had all been set up to raise money for the club over an extended period with no definite endpoint, but the Mariners’ love affair with the charismatic Italian was a finite fundraising operation with a specific aim and deadline.

Bonetti arrived at the club in late September 1995 from Torino and the fans quickly took him to their hearts. By the end of his loan spell in mid-November, no-one wanted him to leave, but as he made his farewells after scoring the winning goal at home against Alan Buckley’s West Brom, it seemed inevitable as the club could not afford to meet the cost of freeing him from his contract with an American sports agency.

It was then that the Ivano Bonetti Fund was set up, with the aim of raising the £50,000 needed to secure the player’s services until the end of the season and with Town having reached 2^nd place in the old Division One following four consecutive victories, in which Bonetti had played a significant part, the Grimsby public embraced the cause.

The organising committee included future chairman Bryan Huxford (showing early signs of his enthusiasm for spending large sums of money on foreign players) and the Telegraph’s Geoff Ford.  There were bucket collections, sponsored events including one fan cycling to West Ham before the FA Cup match at Upton Park and a draw, which offered fifty 1996/97 season tickets as prizes. £50,000 had to be raised by 31^st December 1995, otherwise the club would lose Bonetti.

The truth is that Ivano Bonetti wasn’t really the answer to Mariners fans’ prayers. Yes, he was a damn good player, but the team’s league form had begun to dip long before Brian Laws’ infamous assault with a deadly capon. However until I looked back, I’d forgotten just how early in the season the rot set in, so back then I enthusiastically gave my money to the Ivano Bonetti Fund because it really did seem like keeping him at the club was the key to everything.

Of course, it wasn’t. After going second at the end of November, Town went fourteen games without a win until beating Wolves 3-0 in mid-march and Bonetti played in all bar one of the ten games prior to falling fowl of his frustrated manager at Kenilworth Road on 10^th February. However the long-term decline was masked by both the furore over raising the money and a fantastic FA Cup run, which saw Luton demolished 7-1, West Ham massacred 3-0 on Valentine’s Day and Chelsea taken to a replay.

Only the week before Ivano failed to duck, the programme proudly reported that the target had been reached and Bonetti’s status as a Town player was finally confirmed, ironically just when his manager was probably wishing he never had to see the Italian’s fractured face again. £50,000 had been raised by the fans in less than three months, a truly remarkable achievement, but one which left a sweet and sour taste in the mouth, given that Bonetti was only to play a handful of games more for Grimsby Town.

Could this fundraising feat be achieved again today? I doubt it.  In 1995, Grimsby Town didn’t have a multi-millionaire for a chairman, so the fans knew that they had to do something themselves or lose Bonetti. Nowadays, if someone suggested the fans should raise £50,000 to keep a player at the club, the majority of eyes would turn to John Fenty, expecting him to put his hand in his pocket. His millions have been both a blessing and a curse. They’ve saved the club from administration and possible oblivion, but they’ve also made too many fans complacent.