During lockdown, many turned to baking exotic sourdough or participating in one-time Zoom quizzes. I, however, created an animation with my kids to explore how the mind works, emphasising emotion and intuition as life’s dominant forces. The philosopher Jonathan Haidt uses the elephant and rider metaphor to illustrate this: the elephant represents our emotional, instinctive self, full of raw passion, while the rider symbolises our rational mind, often struggling to control this surge of emotions.
Since September emotion has been the dominant force in my universe. At Grimsby Town, we’ve spent seven months circling the drain of relegation and only in our penultimate game of the season against Swindon Town did a plug of mathematical certainty finally go in.
I feel drained. It’s been a horrific year – one where we got our first taste of what it means to sack a manager and where we got our first taste of expectations so brutally thwarted by the reality of results. A season that started with the loss of my mother and continued with several tragic deaths at the club. A season where one of our players, Callum Ainley, 26, got a diagnosis for thyroid cancer, went through treatment over Christmas and spent the months that followed in recovery. A season that ended with the funeral of our head coaches’ father.
I’ve always believed that you learn more about yourself and those around you in times of crisis than in periods of calm. Leadership is easy when times are good –simply show up, thank the team and smile. It’s under pressure that character is not only forged but revealed. A 5-1 defeat to Doncaster in February was a low and a turning point in our season. This loss, part of a dismal streak where we were beaten three times, drew twice and conceded 19 goals, created an opportunity.
Traditionally we don’t discuss the game on the Sunday after a match, giving us time to reflect and not get too excited about a positive result, or to quiet the clamour for firing the manager if the result was poor. On this occasion, after reviewing the data, our management team convened to chart the way forward. Simply lamenting a 5-1 loss as “clueless”, “disgraceful” or “pathetic”, as some fans did, provides no roadmap for improvement. It was in this moment that our head coach, David Artell, demonstrated humility, adaptability and leadership, overhauling his strategies and simplifying his messages. A pivot that sparked a series of performances that, according to the form table, would have placed us 11th in the league.
Data is one way to try to keep the elephant under control, or at least sedated, while you try to improve. When the season got tough, we had to look at all the permutations of all matches in the league and assess the probability of being relegated. For example, we had been hovering at a 17% chance since Christmas, so in March, when we played against relegation rivals Forest Green Rovers and won, our chances of relegation went down to 3%. While individual games are frustrating, disappointing and annoying it is important to have a model that looks at the aggregate of our own performances and those of others to ensure we are making balanced decisions amid the cacophony of our own opinions and emotions.
One question that inevitably arises is how, with all our data and insights, we still found ourselves in a relegation battle. The answer is straightforward: we were on a steep learning curve. At the end of the previous season, when we first gained access to data models and recruitment intelligence, we did not fully integrate this new approach throughout the organisation. Traditional methods – relying on an “eye for a player”, responding uniquely to each opponent and valuing simple hard work – had previously propelled us out of the National League, so there was resistance to placing data and strategy at the forefront.
In retrospect, this reluctance was a mistake. We lacked a defined game model, leaving recruitment decisions to the management team without a clear, owner-set strategy. Although we recruited technically superior players, their potential was undercut by a lack of clarity on their roles. It’s like going shopping without knowing what you’re planning to cook. You can buy the best eggs available but they won’t help much if you decide to make tomato soup when you get home.
Ultimately, this season’s setbacks fall on us, the major shareholders, and we fully accept that responsibility. Andrew Pettit and I apologised to our fans and have since established a defined game model with an aligned management team. Moving forward, recruitment will be strategic, adhering to this model, rather than relying on luck each year or hoping that there are two teams worse than us. While the previous approach might work in another context, I don’t believe it’s viable in the Football League and it certainly won’t be the way we operate while we are at Grimsby Town FC.
Within all of that analysis we have to remind ourselves why we would endure seven months of stress and the answer is simple – it is because of the emotion. Because we love the town, the people and the football club. I am glad we had data to show us the way but it is love and connection that keeps us going.
In the 73rd minute of the Swindon game, Callum came on for his first home appearance of 2024 and the first since his cancer treatment. Two minutes later he received the ball inside our own half, pirouetted perfectly in one motion and played an inspired 30-yard diagonal pass around the shoulder of their left-back to put Liam Smith in on goal. Liam scored, but Callum’s cameo highlights a more important type of victory.
Ten minutes later Donovan Wilson scored a beautiful long-range effort to lock in the win. The final whistle went and the only emotion was relief. And then there was silence. Two hours, 34 minutes with only my thoughts as I ticked off the miles along the M180 and M62 back home from Grimsby.
Seven months of noise, emotion and opinion and here we are, safe in the knowledge that next year we have secured our position in the Football League.