Oxford City (A) FA Cup - 5th October 18

[ken_shabby]

I've steered clear of this theme for a while as my only brush with DFC these days is on the forum as I can't get to the games. But I'll weigh in a little now.

Tony Burman did a great job as Darts manager, and achieved some real success, but the last few years were not entirely comfy and as kentc states, the decisions around the strikers last year were terrible - you should never drop a striker who is on fire in favor of a newbie who may or may not score. However, at the end of the day, TB resigned. You cannot blame the fans for that, and we had to start afresh.

Here lies my rub. The board had the option of advertising and interviewing for a good manager in order to keep us looking to move up the ladder. Or they could revert to a 'safe' option quoting connections with the club and some sort of DFC ethos. When we annouced the current management duo, I was not at all happy. There seemed to have been no effort to find the best option, or advertise, and the chosen managers had a CV that really beggared the question 'what exactly qualifies these two as the best option for the club?' Sadly that question appears to be being answered by huge doubts over every aspect - recruitment, tactics and all manner of problems arising. I see the Welling fans were equally stupefied by our decision. So why did the board see this as a logical appointment - what did these guys do previously to warrant the appointment. There's a word for these appointments, cronyism. They appear to be jobs for mates or aquaintances. and that is not good enough.

Now we have blown a run in the cup away, but we are stuck with a poor squad with additional loanees. Maybe time to consider getting a decent manager in? Or would a sacking involve another dartford oldie pitching up with no attempt to interview alternatives.

I avoided posting all this before as I wanted to give the new guys time, but to me this was coming since they arrived, and the people who organised this management team should maybe absent themselves from future decisions as this is a ship wreck to be honest. As was posted above, instead of evolution, we have revolution, and the worst type possible.

[Ozymandias]

Jamie Day!! Oh please.

[mickw]

I hope that's 'Oh! please' as in 'God forbid' rather than '....let it happen'

[babylon]

So sad to see my hometown club in such a mess.
It is going to be a long cold winter
We just ain't good enough and I am losing faith in
Our management team ,they instill very little confidence
with their strange decisions!

[Ozymandias]

The former, mickw.

[marmite]

It doesn't matter who the manager is or who is playing, the moaners have been moaning for ten years regardless of results and in the end that affects morale, performance and then people leave.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 366832.stm

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/dartford/s ... ip-180178/

Last year was one of the best and the shouts for TB to go got their wish and for the moaners to say it's not their fault as he resigned is ridiculous. I always thought the clue was in the word 'supporter'.

It is so easy to mess a good team up and so hard to get it back to good once key people have gone, confidence is shot and funds diminished through falling attendances - those that kept shouting will never admit it or never stop moaning but the position the team is in is because of their actions.

If you are a manager looking for a job you know one thing about Dartford now, have a cracking year on the pitch and you'll still get it in the ear - who would take it?

[Home And Away]

So true

[Stella Bad Boy]

yep - totally agree

[Karl Marx]

great post marmite.

[spike]

It doesn't matter who the manager is or who is playing, the moaners have been moaning for ten years regardless of results and in the end that affects morale, performance and then people leave.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 366832.stm

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/dartford/s ... ip-180178/

Last year was one of the best and the shouts for TB to go got their wish and for the moaners to say it's not their fault as he resigned is ridiculous. I always thought the clue was in the word 'supporter'.

It is so easy to mess a good team up and so hard to get it back to good once key people have gone, confidence is shot and funds diminished through falling attendances - those that kept shouting will never admit it or never stop moaning but the position the team is in is because of their actions.

If you are a manager looking for a job you know one thing about Dartford now, have a cracking year on the pitch and you'll still get it in the ear - who would take it?

I know where you are coming from Marmite but OF COURSE it matters who is manager. It is probably the most important job at the club and getting the right person at the helm is crucial. All clubs have some fans who moan about everything, but I always felt this forum was reasonably positive compared to many others. Even when TB had consecutive relegation seasons, he still had the backing of the overwhelming majority and how many clubs would have been chanting the manager's name when getting relegated and losing 1-6 to their rivals? Many of us regard Tony Burman as the greatest ever individual to be associated with our club. He's one of our greatest players, holds the all-time scoring record, has one of the best records as manager, played a huge part in resurrecting our club after its demise, was instrumental in setting up the academy and has done countless other tasks in the boardroom and off the pitch. Nobody in our entire history has achieved anything close to what he has done, the man is truly a living legend.

Personally, I think TB misjudged the support and I believe he still had the backing of the majority, but I think a vocal minority really got to him. Maybe what was different about last season was that a great many of even TB's biggest supporters (and I would include myself in this), did not agree with his selection policy and voiced those opinions. Maybe that didn't help. Having said that, I recognise that it was TB who put together the fantastic squad in the first place and as the new management team are proving, that isn't easy.