The Spirit and Buzz Has Gone

Discuss all matters related to Dagenham and Redbridge
Adrian
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Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2014 4:09 pm

dagger4eva wrote:As a general rule, our previous players have mostly tended to be a set of rough diamonds with something to prove, and more importantly, they knew it!

Quite obviously, the majority of players in the current squad are FAR from being the finished article BUT they perhaps have the mentality that they are better than they actually are and so a swift John Still style team talk (per the you tube clip) and a few kicks up bottoms may be the only way of getting into these players heads and letting them know that it’s either buck up or fcuk off time!

Considering we have a man in charge whos only real public flogging of his team came following a 2-0 WIN ... tells me we probably havent got the manager required to fulfil the above
Its the public bollocking of players that worries me.
The interview after Northampton where he pretty much called some players stupid and the slated Gayle was at best pathetic.

I don't remember Still doing anything like that, and while Hill and Hardy would have less opportunity to font publically I can't imagine them doing it either.
What they would all do is tear into players behind closed doors when necessary.

It's all about knowing when and how to do stuff. Burnetts doesn't seem to have that.
SUSSEX DAGGER
Posts: 2619
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2013 2:47 am

matt_drfc wrote:Porter is on peanuts by the way, only reason he will leave at the end of his contract is if someone else wants him, if not he'll stay, for peanuts.
Grossly overpaid then
Richie
Posts: 705
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2013 9:52 am

SUSSEX DAGGER wrote:
matt_drfc wrote:Porter is on peanuts by the way, only reason he will leave at the end of his contract is if someone else wants him, if not he'll stay, for peanuts.
Grossly overpaid then
Before Saturday I was actually starting to rate him, was better than Chambers and Hemmings in October certainly
matt_drfc
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Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 1:58 pm

Blows hot and cold (a quote pending of 'mainly cold') like most wingers, he's not that bad, not great but I think he's better off the bench personally, for how much we are paying him, I'd say it's worth keeping him on.
SUSSEX DAGGER
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matt_drfc wrote:Blows hot and cold (a quote pending of 'mainly cold') like most wingers, he's not that bad, not great but I think he's better off the bench personally, for how much we are paying him, I'd say it's worth keeping him on.
Was not overwhelmed when we signed him. He had three goes at our defence last season and did not appear to give us any problems......... Which rather says it all really don't it.
The Romford Dagger
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Joined: Fri Aug 08, 2014 1:15 am

SUSSEX DAGGER wrote:
matt_drfc wrote:Blows hot and cold (a quote pending of 'mainly cold') like most wingers, he's not that bad, not great but I think he's better off the bench personally, for how much we are paying him, I'd say it's worth keeping him on.
Was not overwhelmed when we signed him. He had three goes at our defence last season and did not appear to give us any problems......... Which rather says it all really don't it.

Last year's defense of hoyte, Saah, Doe, and confident version of Connors with wilkinson off the bench was quite a solid defense though I thought...
matt_drfc
Posts: 1332
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 1:58 pm

SUSSEX DAGGER wrote:
matt_drfc wrote:Blows hot and cold (a quote pending of 'mainly cold') like most wingers, he's not that bad, not great but I think he's better off the bench personally, for how much we are paying him, I'd say it's worth keeping him on.
Was not overwhelmed when we signed him. He had three goes at our defence last season and did not appear to give us any problems......... Which rather says it all really don't it.
We had a decent defence though for starters, and I thought he was good at our place for Wimbeldon actually
DagenHammer87
Posts: 145
Joined: Sat Oct 19, 2013 1:52 pm

Back in the "good old days" when I started coming along - 99 onwards - the thing that really captured my imagination was the character and personality of the club.

It might not have been the greatest of clubs playing the greatest football in the greatest of leagues; but there was that something about it.

The players had personality, they were a laugh - normal working class blokes who had the ability to have a laugh and had that passion and drive to work hard for themselves and each other.

I haven't been this season and I only made Torquay home and a pre season last year - but from what I've seen is we are completely devoid of any personality. We shouldn't be in red - we should wear beige.

The players seem to saunter into the ground, ignoring everyone; when in reality, they are only doing their own legs in the kids not seeing them as idols or wanting to know.

We had cult heroes in those teams, Broomy, Jonah, Cobby, Shippy, Lee Goodwin - the list is endless. Who have they been replaced with? In my opinion a group of blokes who 1) are here just to earn a pay packet and still have the right to say they're still a "football league player" 2) a group who wonder how they'll look on the football league show and 3) putting themselves in the shop window.

I'll admit I gave wayne a hard time on here the year we nearly went down, but it's the "same old Dagenham" mentality.

It's too expensive to come in off the street now, the general cost of things around the club is ridiculous and the next generation of fans won't put up with our dross when one of the prem teams are smashing it up on motd or fifa.

I tell you how you fix it - put some life back into the club, where's the fun factor within the group? Morale looks terrible and the players are frightened to make a mistake for fear of being booed/ moaned at (rightly or wrongly I must add!).

No one plays with a smile on their face and there doesn't appear to be much direction.

Apologies for the long rant, but I'm gonna firmly put my flag in the "one out all out" camp - get rid of the lot and bring in a new management team when the time comes.

When we lose the amateur approach off the field, we'll do better on it.

Rant done - COYD
Diggerthedog
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Anyone see the palace fans last night? Perhaps we need some ultras.
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Mike the Dagger
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DagenHammer87 wrote:Back in the "good old days" when I started coming along - 99 onwards - the thing that really captured my imagination was the character and personality of the club.

It might not have been the greatest of clubs playing the greatest football in the greatest of leagues; but there was that something about it.

The players had personality, they were a laugh - normal working class blokes who had the ability to have a laugh and had that passion and drive to work hard for themselves and each other.

I haven't been this season and I only made Torquay home and a pre season last year - but from what I've seen is we are completely devoid of any personality. We shouldn't be in red - we should wear beige.

The players seem to saunter into the ground, ignoring everyone; when in reality, they are only doing their own legs in the kids not seeing them as idols or wanting to know.

We had cult heroes in those teams, Broomy, Jonah, Cobby, Shippy, Lee Goodwin - the list is endless. Who have they been replaced with? In my opinion a group of blokes who 1) are here just to earn a pay packet and still have the right to say they're still a "football league player" 2) a group who wonder how they'll look on the football league show and 3) putting themselves in the shop window.

I'll admit I gave wayne a hard time on here the year we nearly went down, but it's the "same old Dagenham" mentality.

It's too expensive to come in off the street now, the general cost of things around the club is ridiculous and the next generation of fans won't put up with our dross when one of the prem teams are smashing it up on motd or fifa.

I tell you how you fix it - put some life back into the club, where's the fun factor within the group? Morale looks terrible and the players are frightened to make a mistake for fear of being booed/ moaned at (rightly or wrongly I must add!).

No one plays with a smile on their face and there doesn't appear to be much direction.

Apologies for the long rant, but I'm gonna firmly put my flag in the "one out all out" camp - get rid of the lot and bring in a new management team when the time comes.

When we lose the amateur approach off the field, we'll do better on it.

Rant done - COYD
Pretty accurate overall, however the "I haven't been this season and I only made Torquay home and a pre season last year" rather spoils the validity of the opinions offered. What you appear to be saying is that you haven't really seen much of us playing under Wayne at all really.

I've not given up on us yet, just feel that the club needs to take a look at itself and decide what its core values and goals are and then work towards that. I believe we are a community club, proud of our heritage, trying to show that football can be played in the Football League without vast silly money, giving players a chance to show what they can do and better themselves. We'll never be a Chelsea or Arsenal, but we can be an Orient or Southend, solid Football League clubs with a chance of a few seasons up the leagues every now and then.

To do that we need to build the club fan base slowly, and our pathetic home form over the last year is actually having the opposite effect. The Season Ticket offer this year was great, the discouraging of people turning up on the day we have been doing for a while now, not so great.

We need to give local youngsters a chance, pick wisely from the vast pool of locol non-league players and Academy players that get set adrift around their late teens early 20s and build a proper team spirit again with players that want to play for the Daggers and which is inclusive of the fans and everyone else involved.

Rant done, - COYD ;)
Lcbdagger
Posts: 1872
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 9:17 pm

While Leyton Orient are hardly a Premier League team in waiting, the debate about the Olympic Stadium showed that from a financial and marketing background they are worlds away from where we are... with bigger financial backing i'm sure we could push on to League One even on small crowds... we have o chance of that
AVincelotFlyingLeap
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Joined: Sat Oct 26, 2013 10:54 pm
Location: Walking In A Woodall Wonderland

Don't like the criticism of the squad - yes they're not part time anymore but they're hard working and likeable young lads for the most part, seems to be a good team spirit going off twitter and the like. Only spoken to a couple but I would say that they make time for the fans a reasonable amount. Yes some of them are waiting for a big move but I think they still appreciate what they have.

EDIT: they don't do a proper lap of honour anymore though which is annoying
SUSSEX DAGGER
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Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2013 2:47 am

The Romford Dagger wrote:
SUSSEX DAGGER wrote:
matt_drfc wrote:Blows hot and cold (a quote pending of 'mainly cold') like most wingers, he's not that bad, not great but I think he's better off the bench personally, for how much we are paying him, I'd say it's worth keeping him on.
Was not overwhelmed when we signed him. He had three goes at our defence last season and did not appear to give us any problems......... Which rather says it all really don't it.

Last year's defense of hoyte, Saah, Doe, and confident version of Connors with wilkinson off the bench was quite a solid defense though I thought...
In August I made a long treck up to Fleetwood within 3 minutes we were two nil down. We just could not deal with restarts. In March I went to Bristol Rovers and watch us conceade in minutes. A defence that was letting goals in like that in August still doing the same in March is not a good defence. To me it is average at best and if I was an opposistion fan I would be describing it as poor.

All our problems have occurred under Wayne because in defence we are woefull.

It was at best average last year and is even worse this year.
SteveMc
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Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2014 10:09 pm

DI Mike Dashwood wrote:Forget the style, forget the tactics, forget even the results (that comes as a result of the problem). In my view the biggest issue is the lack of spirit and enjoyment on and off the pitch. This Club has had it's ups and downs over it's 22 year history (and it's forerunners had even more), but for the most part there has always been a spirit and a buzz about the place. From the days after the merger and early good form in the Conference, through the tough years in the Ryman League and the visit to Wembley in 1997, to returning to the Conference, to missing out on promotion to the League (twice) and on eventually to League One. But from that relegation (in May 2011) to now, the spirit and buzz have gradually been in decline.

I can't put my finger on exactly what it is, I guess it is a number of factors, but it is definitely an issue. One of the reasons I think is the players. They have far less of a connection with the supporters. Back in the Conference days the players and fans had a much closer bond. They would be in the bar after the games with the fans. When we used to sponsor the matches back then Ashley Vickers, Lee Matthews, Tommy Cole, Gooders, Robbo would chat to everyone in the sponsors lounge, now the players look like they have been forced to pop their heads in for five minutes before moving on. Even the side of 4 or 5 years ago, including Benno, Danny Green, Arbs and Josh Scott seemed to appreciate the clubs unique history. I am sure people will have reasons for this (players don't drink, don't live in the area etc etc) and I am sure it is same at many clubs, but for us this spirit played a big part in our succcess and the erosion of it is a bigger problem for us than other clubs.

Atmosphere at games (maybe linked to the above) is also on the decline. Numbers are not the issue here either. I remember games against Donnie (a 3-3 draw around 2002) and Hereford (the year after the 9-0) when the crowd would have been less than 1,500 but the atmosphere was superb. Even when the numbers are up now (we have had several 2,000+ crowds in last two years) the atmosphere is terrible.

I am not sure of reasons for this, and maybe I am just becoming old and grumpy (well I am definitely becoming both of those!!) but things have definitely changed. I don't often agree with Adrian, but something he wrote earlier (I think it was him, apologies if wrong) applied to me as well. I always thought I would grow older and then take my kids to Dagenham every Saturday etc, but at the moment the enjoyment from it is so low I am not sure I will bother. The place is so devoid of any atmosphere or spirit it will be no fun for them.

I don't have the answers but something needs to be done to return some aspects of the club to their previous state.
Could it be because me and the boy don't go anymore? Just a thought like :D

May pop over soon, what's it like at the moment?
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Auntie Merge
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SteveMc wrote: Could it be because me and the boy don't go anymore? Just a thought like :D

May pop over soon, what's it like at the moment?
I question your commitment! ;)
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