We’ve already been in touch with proud people from Iceland and Mosfellsbær in particular, that are thrilled that their own «Jassi» has signed for Grimsby Town.
So here is the beginners guide about Grimsby.
First of all is it possible to watch most of our official matches on Mariners TV. You can buy our kit from the club shop online here!
If you plan to travel to Grimsby (and not in a fishing vessel) we got an airport nearby. Humberside Airport got a good connection to Europe with direct connection from Amsterdam with KLM.
If you want to travel low cost. Many will make their trip to Manchester and then a 3,5 hours train connection with a change.
History in short
Grimsby Town’s nickname is The Mariners. They were formed in 1878 as Grimsby Pelham in Wellington Arms, Freeman Street.
In 1898 we moved to our current stadium Blundell Park. The old Main Stand is actually from 1901 and is the oldest stand in the football league!
Our heights were in the 1930’s with a 5. th place in the top flight and two semi finals in the FA Cup as our highlights. At this time we also had some internationals with Pat Glover, Jackie Bestall and Harry Betmead.
After the war we started to struggle a bit, but were still innovative with a certain Bill Shankly as manager before he was followed by the first foreign manager in England in Hungarian Elemer Berkessy.
But with decline in the fishing industry it should become a bumpy ride before we got success under Alan Buckley in the late 80’s. In his stint we established our self as a good Championship side with some nice passing football. We flirted with the Play Offs several seasons and had some great players with the likes of Clive Mendonca, John McDermott and Paul Groves.
However with Grimsby still being Grimsby we are the most frequent yo-yo club in England having switched divions 32 times! However always dramatic, just as when manager Brian Laws threw a plate with chicken legs into the face of our Italian star player Ivano Bonetti that broke his cheek bone!
After our relegation in 1997 we sold two of our best players, but with Alan Buckley back in the club we built a new team and in the spring of 1998 we played two times at Wembley winning both the Auto Windscreen Shield as well as the Play Off final.
So more years in the Championship followed. With a new TV deal with ITV Digital a lot of money came into the game and we started to spend them getting in foreign players like Chinese international Zhang Enhua and the Danish Messiah David Nielsen. However ITV Digital went bust and the money income dissapered.
In came a new chairman in John Fenty that had become rich after selling his fish industry. He ran the club at low cost in two decades with the price of our football team getting worse and worse. So bad that we lost our league status from 2010 until 2016 and in 2021/22. A certain Paul Hurst brought us up twice, this season will be our third back in League Two.
Our Chairman John Fenty became «a bit» unpopular with his thight budget and ways of doing things. The fans demanded a change and with our current owners we have started to upgrade the club after years with decay.
The highlights in recent years was getting to the quarter final of the FA Cup in 2023 after beating both Luton and Southampton.
Last season was a struggle and we changed our manager from Paul Hurst to David Artell. Artell had success at Crewe with his playing style, but he inherited a team that was built for another style. After a romantic start playing some beautiful football it was clear that we struggled doing so. It became more pragmatic to safe ourselves from another relegation.
We are currenly into David Artell’s second transfer window and he has changed most of the players and the hope now is that we able to play the style of football Artell is know for.
Grimsby was Europes biggest fishing town back in the days, but with the cod war the town went into a big depression with the most talented youth travelling away for jobs. However there are some positivism with the offshore wind industry from recent years however the Town still struggle after little help from the politicans in London.
I spent a week in Grimsby a year ago and wrote a piece in Norwegian about the trip here!
