Generally, the close-season guarantees a welcome break from the stresses and strains of a hectic football calendar which otherwise dominates your life, however for the Daggers, the problems which overwhelmed them last campaign will continue during the summer. Amidst all the uncertainty came a fans' forum on Thursday 17th May which served the purpose of updating all supporters on the current situation at the club. A strong base of 200 or so supporters gathered at the Victoria Road clubhouse, all desperate for some positive news to emerge after a season which delivered much the opposite, and the night didn't disappoint with many revelations and concerns being voiced. Present were Steve Thompson, Paul Gwinn, Dave Bennett and John Still; while the tone of their voices initially indicated a sense of trepidation, they announced a plan to keep the club afloat which depended on donations (a 150k target has been set which can be contributed to via the season ticket forms, which were also distributed), volunteering and everybody pulling together to reach a united cause. The most important thing is that, despite being told to liquidate the club in January, we will at least be competing next season, which is all us supporters can hope for. Admittedly it will be with a significantly trimmed squad as both player and staff cuts were inevitable, and this culminated in the shock news that John Still had resigned from his position as manager. What it means is that we now face a very difficult campaign from August onwards, although Paul Gwinn is confident we can compete at a high standard. Basically, the message of the night was that we will have to thrive on minimal resources, but this isn't necessarily the worst thing as it will reunite the club of the mentality and values which served us so well in the past years. A summary of the topics and themes is below, and can also be viewed on separate Dagenham & Redbridge FC fansite diggerdagger.com, via this link. SUMMARY OF EVENTS: - Steve Thompson told of how he was advised to liquidate the club in January but would do everything in his power to keep us going. With that in mind, he and many others devised a plan which involves volunteering and living by our means for next season, though acknowledged how difficult that will be. - Since the departure of Glyn Hopkin as a majority shareholder the club have been actively seeking a source of investment, however there are still parties interested. We have also secured some minimal funding. Despite an investor being needed, the club remains debt free - barring a loan from the council covering the A13 Steel Stand, a small fee to the brewery and other running costs such as bills - as last month's wages were paid by Hopkin. - Though nothing aside from interest has been expressed as of yet, the board remain optimistic and pointed out that the club could be a good prospect to any investor, as we have a Football League standard ground, coupled with changing rooms fit for use up until Championship level. - The board announced that the only way we would be able to survive was through budget cuts to the playing staff, amongst other things, and this will lead to many redundancies within our youth setup particularly. As the highest earner at the club, John Still has agreed to resign as manager, but said he didn't want a 40-year career to end with a season as turbulent and disastrous as the last, so he will seek another job in football. Since then, he has been announced as Barnet's new boss on a two-year contract. - It is understood that the role will be offered to assistant manager Darren Currie, who has been at the club as a player then a coach since the 2009/10 season. However, Currie is currently on holiday abroad and so talks have not been held as of yet. John Still, however, said that some assistants simply don't want to take on the main role and so while Currie may have first refusal at the job, there are other avenues to be explored. That said, considering the current financial situation, it seems likely that the club would want to promote from within. - It is a tradition of the club to introduce a new team shirt every season and usually this would mean changing our away strip this time around. However in another attempt to cut costs, Paul Gwinn announced that there will be no new kit and that we will continue to use our current white away strip next campaign. - Season ticket forms were also handed out and while many expressed their displeasure at the increase in price, generally people were fairly satisfied. This year's early bird offer is valid until the 16th June. Also on the season ticket form is an option to make a donation to the club because despite being reluctant to allow this to happen, Thompson has now set a 150k target. There is also a Crowdfunding page which was previously set up, this can be found at https://uk.gofundme.com/save-the-daggers. - The club will continue to operate on a full-time basis next season as going part time didn't seem viable. Many contracts come to an end on the 30th June but others are valid until 2019, so when all those have expired the club may re-evaluate the situation. Interest has also been expressed towards many of our current players, but no further details were specified. The fundamental thing is that there is at least a way for us to survive into next season and this is cause for optimism but of course the situation remains worrying and we still need an investor. However, those present on the night did remain confident that we could entice one to the club, which was portrayed as an exciting preposition to anybody because of the fact that all of our facilities are up to standard. The most interesting comment was that we would have to return to how we were fifteen or so years ago and that at least offers hope that the club will return to it's roots. Next season will be hard, incredibly difficult, but the fact that 200 people gave up their night to be there shows how much the team means to all of us. If our help is needed than we have so many loyal supporters who would be willing to contribute. Either way, the most important thing is that the Daggers are going to exist. Of course, losing John Still is a devastating blow because his experience and knowhow was vital in helping us through this situation, and working to a tight budget is something he thrives on. With John gone it'll be hard to attract players to the club, but whoever takes charge now will receive a good backing I'm sure. It promises to be a very hectic Summer, but at least we can look forward to August. Surely things can only get better from here. Notable Quotes:PAUL GWINN: 'I can assure you that we are doing our utmost to keep this club alive.' STEVE THOMPSON: 'Those (playing) contracts cannot be serviced by a club of our size' STEVE THOMPSON: 'We're still speaking to people, all over the world, indeed after the last fans' forum we had a guy from Spain who was very interested.' STEVE THOMPSON: 'We looked at where we were 10/12 years ago. We looked at the level of staff we had. We looked at the level of playing squad we had. And we decided that this club was worth fighting for. It's going to be a difficult twelve months, however you look at it.' STEVE THOMPSON: 'We're sure we can stabilise the ship over the next twelve months.' STEVE THOMPSON: 'When you've got people telling us to liquidate the company during the season, none of us thought it was right to ask you to put your hard-earned money into season tickets or into donations, without us knowing it wouldn't be going into a black hole.' STEVE THOMPSON: 'We are now in a reasonable position where we think we can trade our way out of this over the next twelve months. It's not gonna be pretty, it's going to be very hard, we'll lose a lot of people, but it will be there. So we will launch the sale of season tickets, and we will ask if people would like to put a donation into the football club - it would be gratefully received. We set a target of those donations of 150k.' STEVE THOMPSON: Some of them (staff) are going to have to go. With a club of our size, the size of our support base, without a benefactor we will have to run with a much smaller playing staff.' STEVE THOMPSON: 'Of the six scholars we have, some of them are going to be needed in the first team.' STEVE THOMPSON: 'This saddens me...John's stepped down. He's the highest paid employee at the club. It's going to be a blow because much of our success is down to this man.' STEVE THOMPSON: 'We will have to rely on volunteers. If there are people who can do something, take responsibility of this or that, then please step up to the mark.' JOHN STILL: 'Over the years I've always tried to split John Still the supporter from John Still the manager, and have to try and find the right balance. I'm going to be really honest, if what has happened this season hadn't have happened and whether we were successful or not, in my head I would've finished this year.' JOHN STILL: 'I cannot finish like that. I had no control over it. I'd have hated my last year to have been this. When all this originated, since then with the selling of players, I've had lots of opportunities from clubs in the Football League, and clubs in our league, to go. I said to the board that the right thing for me to do was to step down as soon as I know what the club is doing. Now I know what the club is doing, I can't finish my career on this, so I will go somewhere else.' JOHN STILL: 'I'm never not going to be a Dagenham supporter.'
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