In May 2021, Andrew Pettit and I took on what would prove to be one of the hardest challenges of our lives when we bought our home-town club, Grimsby Town. The difficulty wasn’t just in turning the club around, it was in grappling with an economic system that simply doesn’t work. Most importantly, and unlike the business world we come from, the stakeholders are not abstracted customers but our family, friends and the wider community of which we are part.
Football isn’t just a game, it offers a sense of history, rootedness and connection far beyond what happens for 90 minutes on any given Saturday. It’s a crucible for human stories, a reflection of society and an arena where ambition, frustration, identity and community collide.
