Last week Grimsby Town Supporters Trust chairman, Dave Otter, sat down with Town chairman John Fenty and newly appointed manager Mike Newell to answer your questions. Here, exclusively to GTST.net, is the first part of the transcribed interview.

DO:        John and Mike – thanks very much for joining us for this question time session. I have a number of questions that have been sent in by supporters. We’ve joined some together to get it through quicker, but I’ll do my best. Starting with you John, what are the qualities Mike possesses that made him the best man for the manager’s job?

JF:           Well obviously Mike’s been a great footballer. He’s done very very well at the highest level and beyond that we think he’s an excellent man manager capable of acquiring the types of players that we’ll need to progress as a football club and clearly he’s a man of great integrity.

DO:        Mike, what do you think you bring to the job? What is the Mike Newell approach to football management?

MN:       Well hopefully I bring the qualities that John’s just mentioned and my record in management so far at Hartlepool and Luton is a reasonable one. I’m not one for talking about things that you’ve done in the past but we managed to get two promotions with those clubs. I think I can recognise a player. I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve played at the highest level and also at the other levels in the football league and I think I know what’s required for those levels so when I say fortunate, I’ve played with some good players; I’ve played against some very good players and I think I’ve got a good eye for a footballer. In terms of what I can bring to the job, I think the most important part of it is man management, as it is in any job. You’re basically trying to get the best out of the people who are working for you or working with you. So far I’ve managed to do that. I’ve never forgotten what it’s like to be a player and I think that’s important when you step over the other side of the fence. You have to be on the same wavelength as the players and what they like and what they want and what they want to achieve out of the job. So, so far so good and I’m just looking forward to proving that I can do that here.

DO: You say you’ve played with some great players. Who do you think is the best you’ve played with?

MN:       Well the best footballer I’ve ever played with was Paul Gascoigne. I played with him in the England B team and he was just so far ahead of everything else that I’ve ever seen. I played against him as well for Tottenham Hotspur and at that time he was quite possibly the best footballer in the world and we were very lucky to have him playing in our country at that time. People will know that I played with Alan Shearer at Blackburn for four or five years and he’s possibly one of the best professionals I’ve ever come across. Undoubted ability but not the out and out talent that Gascoigne was, but certainly the one who made the most of everything he had and his record goes before anybody in terms of goals in the Premier League and at the highest level. I played with a lot of good players, particularly at Everton. I caught the back end of their successful league winning side and Cup Winners’ Cup winning side.  And it’s not only the players you’ve played with. It’s the players you’ve played against.

DO: Right, thanks. John, how many applicants were there for the manager’s job?

JF:           There were something in the order of around fifty serious applications, of which thirty-five you’ll look at and say we’ll take them more seriously.  We interviewed six of those and then further head-hunted two. So in total we had eight interviews and we interviewed most of those applicants twice.

DO:        Back to Mike, you’ve now had a couple of weeks to have a look at the current squad – there are a number of points in this so I’ll go through them one by one - are you looking to bring in new players sooner rather than later?

MN:       What I said when I first got here was that it was only right to give the lads already here an opportunity to show me what they’re capable of. When you go to a new club, what you find is that, for whatever reason, there are players on the fringe, or out of the team, or sometimes out of the squad that should be in the squad. That’s not to knock anyone who’s gone before me. It’s just the way things happen and it’s only right to assess what you’ve got here and give those lads an opportunity. I’ve no doubt at all that there will come a time when I ask the chairman, can I bring in a player or two, because I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if that wasn’t the case. We’re looking to progress the club and take the club forward, so you need to improve the squad, but along the way you will find a lot of the lads here can go with those players and go to another level and every time you go up a level, which hopefully we will do, you will find some players come with you and some can’t come with you. That’s just a fact of life and it’s my job to assess which ones can come with you.

DO:        I think you’ve probably already answered most of this but, have you identified any particular areas where we need to strengthen the team?

MN:       If you’re doing your job properly, you need to strengthen every part of the team and it’s not right to single out certain areas because the people who are playing at this present time might take offence at that to be honest. I keep my cards pretty close to my chest and do things slowly and gradually. I won’t make any rash decisions, like bringing in three or four loan players that I’m not sure of.  The players that I will try and bring to the football club will be people that I’m sure of or I think can improve us. A lot of managers just bring in players for the sake of it – I’m not one of them.

DO:        The next question I suppose both of you could answer. Does the club have a good enough scouting system or is that something you will be looking to build on?

MN:       Well I believe I’ve got a lot of contacts in the game from clubs I’ve been at and people I’ve played with and played against. I can pick the phone up to most football clubs and there is somebody at those football clubs that I’ve either played with or come into contact with and I respect their opinion. So I believe I’ve got enough contacts. In an ideal world, you’d love to have scouts all over the country. I was talking to somebody at the weekend about Manchester United and the network they’ve got, but you expect that of the top clubs. We here have got enough at the moment to make sure that we’ve got opposition covered and players around the country that we’re capable of getting at the moment. It’s no good us getting a scouting network that look all over the country and all over Europe when you can’t bring the players to Grimsby Town. It’s a case of identifying people you think could come here right now or would come here right now.

DO:        The last question in this little batch you have just answered to a certain extent. Will you look abroad for players?

MN:       No, I won’t go looking abroad. There will be occasions when we get the opportunity to bring players from abroad and I don’t have a downer on bringing in European players but I think there are certain levels that it’s not right to bring in players from abroad. Well, to be fair, at all levels they have to be much better than what you’ve already got because they bring a number of problems in terms of relocation, how quickly they settle, do they really want to be at Grimsby right at this present time or are they just looking to move or get themselves in the picture, get themselves in a window. I’m not one for going looking abroad to be quite honest. I think what we need here are lads who know what Grimsby is about and thankfully, from what I’ve seen so far, we’ve got a lot of lads in the club that recognise that.

DO:        Thank you. The next question is, are there likely to be any changes to the coaching staff in either the short or long term?

MN:       Well I haven’t got any plans in the short term but, a little bit like the player situation, if I feel there’s somebody I can bring in on the staff that can help us or improve us, then that’s a question I’ll put to the chairman and if he can help us in that way then all well and good. But I’m not one for making great demands about staff and players. As I said, this is a gradual thing and right now I’m not in any rush to make drastic changes to people who are on the staff here right now. They deserve the same chance as the players who are on the staff here right now.

DO:        John, is there money available to bring in new players without having to offload current players first? If so, will we be looking to bring in more players on loan or to make permanent signings?

JF:           Well, I think some of that Mike can answer, but there is an element of the old budget left. We do work within a salary cap structure, but when all’s said and done, if Mike comes forward and wants a key individual besides what’s already within the budget, we’ll just have to find a way to make sure we can do that. Naturally we are very very supportive of wanting to take the football club forward and we’ll do what we can, as we’ve always done with all of our management, to support them where we can and we’ve not had cause yet to refuse any manager anything they’ve asked so I think that bodes well for the support that Mike’s going to get.

DO:        Are we far off the salary cap at the moment?

JF:           In order to have the budget that we’ve got, we are under what I would call control of the Football League. They are looking at our expenditure quite carefully. I think they’re probably doing it with most clubs, if not all clubs. I mean if there’s some sugar daddies there that’s prepared to put money in that isn’t a loan, then that qualifies as income. It’s a salary cap versus income, not loans. So you can’t just loan a million pounds and go and spend an additional million pounds on players. It doesn’t work that way. The money has to be found and it has to be part of the income structure of the football club and so things are a little bit different than they’ve been for the last two or three years and it is an enforceable thing now where you can get penalty points and so on if you are deemed to breach the situation on purpose. Naturally if your income streams fall away through, let’s say, poor footballing performance that you couldn’t have forecasted, there will be some allowances made for that, but we have to be sensible. Nevertheless, we have to find a way of supporting Mike and that which he wants to do.

DO:        Would loan players salaries come into that?

JF:           Yes they do.

DO:        Mike, what is your assessment of the young players we have at the club? If you think a young player is good enough are you happy to throw him in at the deep end (I think we saw the answer to that on Saturday) and let him learn by his mistakes or do you prefer to bring youngsters through to the first team gradually?

MN:       Obviously I’ve proved that I’m prepared to give youngsters a chance and I don’t think age has any bearing on it to be quite honest. If they deserve to be in the team, they deserve to be in the team. I think in the long run, if you can bring your youngsters through, then it will help the stability of the club and the business sense of the club in terms of what you get for them later on because, let’s make no mistake about this, if young players are doing well now, other clubs are looking at them and there will come a time that you can’t stand in their way. Now hopefully we can keep them long enough to help us progress, but from a business point of view in the long run, it will make the club stronger if you can bring your own through and move them on. I’ve never had a problem with bringing in youngsters. In an ideal world, you would love to bring the youngsters in and throw them into a side that’s doing well, and a side that’s successful. But right now, we don’t have that luxury so it’s a case of sink or swim right at this moment but if they’re good enough they’ll come through.  They’ll make mistakes like everybody else but that’s part of their learning and you have to allow them to make the mistakes and allow them to have that experience of first team football for them to progress. It’s no good throwing a blanket over them for two or three years and playing them in youth team and reserve team games and saying this lad’s going to be a good player. It’s out there that they’re going to prove whether they can sink or swim or not. So I’ve never had a fear of throwing in youngsters. I think I proved that at both Hartlepool and Luton and as I said it will make the club stronger in the long run.

DO:        Are you planning to relocate to the local area? And with hindsight on the Martin Butler situation, will potential new signings be told that they have to live within so many miles of Grimsby?

MN:       Well, I’ve already relocated. I was in a hotel for a week and I’ve now got a place for the next month, which will allow me to look around the area. If there’s anyone out there with any nice rented property [laughter] and is prepared to do a deal, then you know where I am. But yes, there’s no doubt about it, one of the demands that the chairman and the board made in the first interview was would I be prepared to relocate. You can’t do the job if you’re hundreds of miles away or based hundreds of miles away and I know that. For four and a half years in total at Hartlepool and Luton I’ve worked away from home and it can be hard now and again, but when you’re in the job you need to be on site and there’s no two ways about that. I’ve got good support from my family and I’ve always had good support in terms of my career, whether it be playing or managing and yeah, I’ll be here. In terms of players, Martin Butler wasn’t an ideal situation. I’m not blaming anybody for that, because they brought a decent quality player to Blundell Park, but it’s something we have to look at and it’s something that we have to learn from and you can’t be asking players to drive miles and miles if you’re going to ask them to perform to the best of their ability. So it’s something we have to look at and thankfully you know it’s not that bad a place Grimsby and they’ve proved in the past that they can get people to move here and come back here and stay here. So when people are happy in their job, you’ll find that they are more likely to relocate and more likely to be on site.

DO:        That’s great. John - a couple of questions about the new stadium now. In light of your recent comments in the local press about being prepared to sell up, the frustrations regarding the stumbling blocks which keep delaying the club’s relocation plans and the ongoing credit crunch, is there still a way forward for the Conoco stadium project?

JF:           Yeah, I think we should first of all address this supposed “he said the club’s up for sale”. I think we all know now that is something that David Burns of Radio Humberside perpetuated in his opening introduction of the statement we released.

What we simply said at the time was we’re under a lot of pressure, frustrated to the extent that it’s not going well on the field and it’s not going particularly well with the stadium project and to that extent if anybody out there thinks they can do a better job and wants to stand up and be counted like we are doing, or if indeed myself or Peter Furneaux stand in the way of others coming forward, then please let us know because all we want is what’s best for this football club. So that puts that one to one side. In terms of the credit crunch, without question that’s going to have a material effect on attracting retailers to Great Coates, which of course is part of the enabling exercise in order to deliver the stadium. The biggest problem we’ve got is that the Henry Boot scheme’s been consented and quite frankly the two schemes together equal 56% of the retail that’s already at Top Town and when all’s said and done, people don’t pass through Grimsby to go elsewhere, so that 56% of additional shops would have to be shopped at, by and large, by people that live locally. Well in your wildest dream, something’s got to give. Both schemes can’t happen and the facts are that retailers will choose a more central location if it’s available. So thereby, Henry Boot signals the death knell of our scheme in its current form, which is soul-destroying, when all’s said and done. The amount of pain we’ve gone through to get the planning permission is now all in vain and that’s very very sad. We would also like the council to speak with one voice. We’re fed up of being a pawn . When you go back to the beginning, in 1994, a relocation was mooted. It was the council’s idea – they wanted us to relocate – they wouldn’t in effect allow us to redevelop Blundell Park. That’s what was said at the time and they paid for a sequential test, which came up with Great Coates being the only site that could accommodate a football club and  a retail enabling development. So it was the council’s idea, not the football club’s. It was then allocated in the local plan, and the local plan is essentially the plan that the council get behind and decide that they want to happen. So we form part of their plan essentially and when you think that we’ve gone through this exercise and over the last fourteen years or so the football club has spent a million pounds in pursuit of that which the council first asked us to do, to think that our chances of relocation have been scuppered, it’s all very upsetting to say the least and that leaves me with extreme frustration. There was never an intention to year in, year out bail the football club out. The intention was to do it for a number of years until we could actually relocate and get the football club to become sustainable so it’s a legacy for future generations. Whilst we’re at Blundell Park, we don’t have the income streams to compete with other stadia that’s already relocated or got better facilities and the sooner everybody locally wakes up to that fact, the more chance that us relocating is likely to be the case.

DO:        What are the possible ways forward John? You’ve said that a non-food retail development has effectively been blown out of the water by the Henry Boot development. Is the possibility then that the planning application would be modified?

JF:           That’s something we’re looking at at the moment, but frankly in order to deliver now, we have to reinvent ourselves. With that amount of non-food retail capacity around, 300,000 square feet we’re talking about, that’s 150 Henry Boots and 150 of the football club, it’s preposterous to think that can be fulfilled, so when all’s said and done we’ve got to think of something else for that site that can actually deliver the cross subsidy. Now there’s very few things that can be and I don’t want to go into detail about the direction it may or may not take, but in order to deliver at Great Coates, we will need proper, whole-hearted support from the council.

DO:        Ok, there was a report, and don’t comment on this if you don’t want to John, that the council had discussed with you the possibility of locating the stadium somewhere else in a community stadium. Can you throw any light on that?

JF:           As far as I’m concerned, that’s absolute fiction. I think I know the statement you’re talking about.  It probably was Councillor Lowis. He purported that George Krawiec, himself, myself and Peter Furneaux sat down to discuss the potential of going to Freeman Streetto regenerate the Freeman Street area. That’s an absolute out and out fabrication. There’s no qualms about that. The only other sites put forward seriously, the football club put forward and other than that we’ve gone on record to the council to simply say in the past when we were going through the planning process, we’re finding this a difficult process going through the planning, we don’t appear to have the support of the council, can you please confirm that you’re in support of your local plan or otherwise tell us how else we can deliver a relocation. The football club has never ever been precious about where it relocates to, just the fact that it has got to relocate.

DO:        Thank you. Question for both of you really. Coming back from the future to the present, with the delays to the new stadium project, this has the knock-on effect of the players still having to train at Cheapside, where the general consensus is that the facilities are very basic. Firstly, what is the situation with Cheapside? Is it owned by the club or leased? Secondly, what is your assessment of the facilities there and is it worth making improvements to the site, given that the club could be moving to a new stadium in a few years’ time? Will Cheapside still be used when that happens?

JF:           Ok, maybe I can start this one and say that it is a facility that is rented. I think the lease runs out in 2010 but we’re looking to extend that. We’re also looking at other options as we speak. But in terms of the facility itself, rather than me trying to blow its trumpet, maybe we ought to ask Mike what he thinks of the nutrition and the facility itself and everything that goes on at the training ground.

MN:       Well, to be quite honest, I’m happy with it. The area is a decent area to train. It’s a location that’s accessible for all the players in the morning, more accessible than if they were coming into town. The pitches are ok and look as if they could stand up to a lot of wear. I’ve trained on a lot worse in the past at bigger clubs, a lot worse. In terms of the nutrition that the chairman’s talking about, the lads are well looked after. It’s important that they eat after training. The food that’s served is top quality to be quite honest for a club in the bottom division and there’s a pool table there, which they can use before and after training. As a group, it’s not somewhere that they’re looking to drive in and out of as quickly as possible and there are a lot of training grounds where I’ve been at in the past where that is the case. So yes, we’d all love fantastic facilities and there will be things that I’ll ask the chairman for that he can possibly help us with along the way, but I’m not going to make any great demands. In an ideal world, we’d all love to be in a fantastic training ground and a brand new stadium, and if the club is going to progress the way we’d both like it to progress then that has to happen. That’s got to be on the agenda and the club has got to get the help that the chairman’s seeking.

JF:           Can I just mention also that we’ve got a gymnasium at Blundell Park. It’s in a fifty foot portacabin. It’s tightly fitted but it’s got a lot of equipment in there, which was only fitted out last year. Of course that was in a movement towards strengthening the youngsters up and giving the pros the opportunity to have a dedicated programme for their own special needs. So we’re always trying to do the best we can with what we’ve got. We know it’s not good enough in terms of elitism. We’d all like a brand new stadium and brand new training facility but at the moment we’re making the best of what we’ve got and I believe the facilities here are really pretty comparable to a lot of clubs at this level to say the least.

DO:        If we did move to a new stadium, is it envisaged that the training would take place there?

JF:           No, there would be three 3G community pitches. Some of the youth set-up would operate on that, but we still envisage having a training ground away from the stadium so that when the players come to the stadium, it’s a little bit special.