Sleightly Deceptive wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2024 5:20 pm
Well, if we go down, which is a stronger certainty than an Essex nurse, then we’re coming back up bigger and better. Has to be. If you think about it, if it fails and goes further tits up, then the Board’s position is untenable. And I don’t even want to think about that after what they’ve done and achieved.
Next season, we “Do It for Dave!”
DARTFORD FC will be a massive club in the IPL and teams will be shitting themselves at the prospect of coming to a ‘bouncing’ Princes Park (remember those days? )
This summer is key. Are you watching Ady?
Sorry but DFC are a massive club in the NLS makes no difference if managed like a Sunday league side which we have been for a number of seasons.
Sleightly Deceptive wrote: ↑Tue Apr 02, 2024 5:20 pm
Well, if we go down, which is a stronger certainty than an Essex nurse, then we’re coming back up bigger and better. Has to be. If you think about it, if it fails and goes further tits up, then the Board’s position is untenable. And I don’t even want to think about that after what they’ve done and achieved.
Next season, we “Do It for Dave!”
DARTFORD FC will be a massive club in the IPL and teams will be shitting themselves at the prospect of coming to a ‘bouncing’ Princes Park (remember those days? )
This summer is key. Are you watching Ady?
Sorry but DFC are a massive club in the NLS makes no difference if managed like a Sunday league side which we have been for a number of seasons.
Oooh. Don’t apologise Billy. Because, actually, I didn’t say the weren't.
Short of a miracle, we will be playing Hashtag next season.
Our club has clearly been mismanaged, yes imho.
High profile club with fantastic facilities, not that long ago attracting average of 1500. Daft decisions have been made and the result, play offs to relegation (barring a miracle).
The Club now needs a Chairman who lives locally and is very hands on so as to plan and drive the Club onto bigger and better things . In no way am I disrespecting the terrific job that Dave Skinner and Steve Irving but the facts are that with the sad passing of Dave and Steve now residing in the Lake District the very hand on approach has ceased and currently no-one is in an Executive position to take the necessary controls
DFC is a business and needs to be operated as such and no business is ever successful without a strong CEO [ or Chairman] !!
I am NOT suggesting a " Sugar Daddy " but a paid CEO with targets could be the answer ??
The Duke wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2024 10:24 am
The Club now needs a Chairman who lives locally and is very hands on so as to plan and drive the Club onto bigger and better things . In no way am I disrespecting the terrific job that Dave Skinner and Steve Irving but the facts are that with the sad passing of Dave and Steve now residing in the Lake District the very hand on approach has ceased and currently no-one is in an Executive position to take the necessary controls
DFC is a business and needs to be operated as such and no business is ever successful without a strong CEO [ or Chairman] !!
I am NOT suggesting a " Sugar Daddy " but a paid CEO with targets could be the answer ??
The club does have someone there all week making decisions, as far as I’m aware Tony makes a lot of the decisions in his head of academy/director of football role or whatever it is.
We have to change our recruitment policy. Fundamentally that is what has cost us this season, poor quality signings from pre season and relying on loans is not sustainable. We've also not got out of the revolving door policy we've had since Steve King, I don't think we used as many players as King but the constant ingoings/outgoings especially the loan players is extremely frustrating as a fan. There's far less connection to the players.
I don't know who is in charge of the recruitment or if we leave it all down to the manager, but to me that feels very dated.
It pains me to say but Chelmsford's recruitment over the past few seasons has been superb, and that's down to the fact they have a head of recruitment in place, Adam Drew. We all knew about Samir but the signings he's made on top of that such as Luke Jenkins who I have no doubt will be playing league football in the next few seasons as well as Jermaine Francis who came from Hashtag United in the Isthmian who has recently been voted their player of the season.
If we've lost over £70,000 last year which will be the financial year ending April 2023 then I wonder what the losses will be for this year ending April 2024.
And what percentage of that could be down to ill-informed and badly timed decisions?
Paying up the remaining months of Mr. Dowson's contract when he would have likely kept us up must have burned a hole in the accounting book for starters.
Maybe our normally conservative board should have written off the play-offs rather than putting our league status at risk.
Tony Burman regained control of first team affairs because the board asked him to and he would never turn them down. Yet he admitted himself the game has changed since he stepped down from management and I think he found it quite challenging and was probably relieved when Pennock arrived.
Last edited by Ajaxman DFC on Wed Apr 10, 2024 1:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Mark Sweet wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2024 11:48 am
We have to change our recruitment policy. Fundamentally that is what has cost us this season, poor quality signings from pre season and relying on loans is not sustainable. We've also not got out of the revolving door policy we've had since Steve King, I don't think we used as many players as King but the constant ingoings/outgoings especially the loan players is extremely frustrating as a fan. There's far less connection to the players.
I don't know who is in charge of the recruitment or if we leave it all down to the manager, but to me that feels very dated.
It pains me to say but Chelmsford's recruitment over the past few seasons has been superb, and that's down to the fact they have a head of recruitment in place, Adam Drew. We all knew about Samir but the signings he's made on top of that such as Luke Jenkins who I have no doubt will be playing league football in the next few seasons as well as Jermaine Francis who came from Hashtag United in the Isthmian who has recently been voted their player of the season.
Eastbourne Borough have a Head of Recuitment, who must be on a significant salary (having reportedly been at Liverpool and Man Utd previously ) and a Manager recruited from the Football League, on a reported six figure salary and their players are full time employees, (like Havant and Waterlooville).
Hasn't done them much good, has it? They may well escape relegation now, but this has been their worst season for years, and must have cost their owner an absolute fortune.
My point is that throwing silly money at a non league football club doesn't guarantee success.
No ones mentioning ‘Throwing money’ at any thing or anyone DT, but it’s been blatantly obvious for a few seasons now that our antiquated board & the way the clubs business is done is in serious need of a complete revamp from top to bottom!!
If that includes paying a CEO or recruitment consultant (for want of a better term ) then so be it!!
Time to get into the 21st century Dfc, & there’s only 3/4 of it left!!
Looks very likely we are now a premier league team (all be it the isthmian premier)
Mistakes have been made I believe by the board number one sacking a fairly successful manger apparently for non footballing reason, what would we give to be in with a chance of losing in the paly-off's on penalties, (then again Dartford, Gloucester & H&W are all being relegated this season all ex clubs of Kingy)
Number 2 Mistake was giving Dowson so long before he was rightfully dismissed, In my opinion he should have gone at the end of last season, the rot set in early 2023 with him style of play diabolical after match interviews and style of play even though we finished second last season I never got a buzz watching the football dished up (except for the two wins against Ebbsfleet), Players we lost under Dowse (Wilks, Carruthers, Essam, Bonner) to name a few replaced by sub standard players.
I do wonder if Dartford FC have become a small club in terms of finances, there is more money in National League south than ever before can we compete now? If not is it time to open the club up for investment? This is no means a dig a the few people that put their money where their mouth is and got us to the national league level in first place, without them where would DFC be, but without investment will we stagnate of even fall further down the football pyramid.
In hindsight the timing of the sacking of Douse appears on paper to have been our downfall. Although the stats don't account for the full picture it is hard reading.
Douse 34 points from 27 games, 1.3 p / per game
Others 9 points from 17 games, 0.5 p / per game
Of these games
TB 4 points 8 games
Ade 6 points 9 games
Personally I thought the style of play brought in by Douse was dull to watch, and I hoped the club would relive him of his duties much sooner than they did. What do they say about being careful what you wish for...
Statistics aside, the decisions made, seem to have severely backfired on us as a club.
Only mitigation there, Tall Dart, is hindsight. If Dowson had stayed until season close and all results had played out the same (unlikely, I grant), we would all be raging that the axe had not been swung earlier.
What we don’t know, is how we would have reacted to a mid-table finish if Dowson stayed. I think it’s fair to say that some would still be calling for his head, with this in mind how could he ever win? Some will say you make your own luck…
DA Mikey wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2024 4:56 pm
Only mitigation there, Tall Dart, is hindsight. If Dowson had stayed until season close and all results had played out the same (unlikely, I grant), we would all be raging that the axe had not been swung earlier.
What we don’t know, is how we would have reacted to a mid-table finish if Dowson stayed. I think it’s fair to say that some would still be calling for his head, with this in mind how could he ever win? Some will say you make your own luck…
Very good point about hindsight, but to answer how Dowson could have won, the answer is simple: by getting promotion. He was brought in to build on Steve King’s relative success whilst staying financially sustainable. There can be no question that he ultimately failed to do that.
However the timing of Dowson’s dismissal means that he comes away with a sense of vindication at us spiralling (regardless that the spiral started in December). I hope it’s not true (as said in Worthing thread) that Danny Scopes was the first choice replacement because if anyone thought that he’d have made the move mid-season from a team higher placed than us then they shouldn’t be anywhere near a club board. You don’t need hindsight to know that’s deluded!
Decent answer DoH, we have to then revisit the frivolous comments made in pre-season regarding the zero chance of finishing as high as 2022/23 season.
I had some sympathy for AD, but it was compromised by the car-crash interviews and constant unnecessary comments about the b****t.
Totally right regarding Danny Scopes too.
An interesting Twitter post of the benefits that small town Needham Market has derived from its very successful academy system. Needham Market will swap places in the pyramid with Dartford at the season’s end. Whilst we have a thriving academy set up ourselves we hopefully aren’t too big to learn from other clubs’ success stories and look at how Needham Mkt has integrated so many academy graduates into its first XI and winning the Southern League Premier Central title into the bargain. Needham Market has no money man and achieved this success on average gates of 400 or so; winning the title ahead of many bigger opponents including Telford, Redditch, Leamington and Kettering. After the Darts posted recent losses of £70k perhaps we need to be far more attuned to maximising our academy assets in future? Of course, this will be down to the manager to make the most of the prospects but as a step 3 club next season the jump in standard for the best academy players will be significantly reduced. Sam Oduado and Olly Box should only be the start…
In my post I stressed that any incoming CEO/Chairman would have a target and of course thats performance rated, nobody with only half a brain cell would offer a starter salary anywhere near £100k but there is so much hidden potential on ways to bring money in , inhouse catering , music concerts ,sponsorship etc that a proven Commercial professional could have a huge impact . To say that Tony Burman is at the Club every day is irelivent as Tony's big strength is his football knowledge and Acadamy success [ which I understand bring in good money] BUT not in a million days would Tonys experience get him a job as a CEO/Chairman
Dartford fc have been stagnant for the last 3/5 years and will remain so whilst other futurist Clubs are leaving us behind , the latest being [ previously] little old Chatham !!!
I am now too long in the tooth to worry about Dartfords future , much more interested in enjoying mine which includes seeing a good footballing team at PP
DA Mikey wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2024 4:56 pm
Only mitigation there, Tall Dart, is hindsight. If Dowson had stayed until season close and all results had played out the same (unlikely, I grant), we would all be raging that the axe had not been swung earlier.
What we don’t know, is how we would have reacted to a mid-table finish if Dowson stayed. I think it’s fair to say that some would still be calling for his head, with this in mind how could he ever win? Some will say you make your own luck…
Very true DA Mikey, I would take mid table failure today if it were on offer There is another one I can think of " If it ain't broke don't fix it" apply it to whomever you choose.
Every season, one or two teams get a good result and their fans will say “that’s the worst Dartford side I’ve seen for ages / ever seen”. Of course, it’s fine to say these things, but the chances are that we will have had an off day and / or the other side has turned up and played a blinder. This season, I would say I heard this remark in more than half the games I attended, home and away.
There are so many ‘what ifs’ to this season, but one thing for sure is that on the pitch we have consistently under performed in all areas and thus we go down. Been ready for this since start of February, have quickly got over it and I suggest the club do the same from top to bottom. Longer we spend feeling sorry for ourselves, the worse things will get in the wake of it all.
I can't comment too much as I haven't seen the games - just the terrible results and the comments on here. But the overall impression is we managed to end up with a bunch of players who generally went through the motions and took us down. Three managers is never a good start - I love TB but like a lot of managers who stop managing, he wasn't the right choice for the extended run he got. The new guy came to a club who's players and fans were already accepting relegation as a hard reality - compare that with Welling and there are a number of people who should hang their heads in shame.
So we need to rebuild. Look at the manager and decide if he can build a promotion contending team? Has he actually done this, and how long ago? And the players! It's fairly clear we need a clear out, but we also need replacements for whoever we offload. Which needs someone with knowlege of decent young players at our level or below who will come in hungry for success. It's very hard to be optimistic right now after some of the recent results, but we need the new manager to get the right playesr in. Do the board feel he is capable? (Pointless appointment if he was brought in to steer us to safety).
I'm not going to slate the board - I'm sure they are equally devestated. But while the last two managers (King and Dowse) came in with strong CV's, the comedy duo before King hung around long after it was clear they were out of their depths, and the new guy can at best say he was served up a useless squad. We need more than excuses next season!
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There is another one I can think of " If it ain't broke don't fix it" apply it to whomever you choose.