The excessively long wait before the club's eagerly-awaited Retained List was finally published on Wednesday morning, especially in relation to other sides whose campaigns also didn't extend into the play-off phase, at least gave supporters ample time to deliberate upon which players would remain at Victoria Road beyond the summer. Yet, even given the club's notorious lack of ruthlessness in such situations, surely nobody would have anticipated the extent to which lenience has been shown to those deemed surplus to requirements as we ultimately failed in our ambitions last term, many of whom have either been awarded new contracts or are currently involved in conversations towards that conclusion. Primarily Yoan Zouma and Harry Phipps, both having struggled here albeit for very different reasons. The latter has been an unmitigated disaster on and off the pitch, bringing the club's moral image into temporary disrepute with his complicity in the animal abuse scandal, before then denying us a realistic chance of getting to Wembley on his return by clumsily giving a last-second penalty away in the FA Trophy Quarter Final against York, who then triumphed via a penalty shootout at our expense. The enhanced spotlight now projected onto us as a result of this decision is simply not worth it for a player not good enough to make our best centre half combination last season, let alone when we look to improve this time around. It doesn't exactly equip the fanbase with significant belief, either, that we'll learn from the mistakes made in the last few months, especially with other prominent defenders rumoured to be departing. Moving onto Phipps now, a hugely talented player we really root for because of his age-defying maturity showcased during the financial crisis of 2018 and the devastating misfortune he has suffered through a series of severe injuries thereafter. However, there reaches a period where common sense has to supersede sentiment and we've long surpassed that point to be honest. It felt like the end when he ruptured an ACL during pre-season two years ago, yet he's somehow still here having only made four appearances for us since. There's not many players I'm more desperate to succeed here, but it feels like another Zavon Hines. Conversely, the other two players whose options have been triggered are Mo Sagaf and Myles Weston, which are comparitively far more sensible decisions as they have have been absolutely integral to us. They are crucial to our fast-paced attacking style, shouldering a huge creative burden too having registered a combined seventeen assists last season, and are very rarely injured. We simply don't look the same team whenever one, let alone both, so it is really brilliant news. The above-mentioned quartet join the following players - already under contract - as our initial 2022/23 squad pending inevitable signings: Ángelo Balanta, Josh Hare, Ansu Janneh, Elliott Johnson, Elliot Justham, Sam Ling, Paul McCallum, Junior Morias, Manny Onariase, Matt Robinson, Ryley Scott, Mauro Vilhete and Josh Walker. It's a strong core but lacks in defensive solidity, which simply has to be our primarily area of targeted improvement.
Trimmed from that squad are five departing players, none being a particular surprise. Mr Intensity himself, Joey Jones, is the only one who will leave without any real well wishes from anybody after burning bridges here, which undermined the fact he was occasionally a quality midfielder capable of completely running the show. Grimsby Town, for whom he spent the last few weeks of the season, also seemingly worked out very quickly that he was an inconsistent maverick not worth the hassle. Another whose loan foreshadowed the end of the road was Kenny Clark, a previous mainstay gradually phased out in his final year but he still filled in commendably on the rare occasion he was utilised. Probably never quite good enough for where we wanted to be, however still a very good servant and absolute gent too. Whether he retires or joins someone else, it will be with the genuine regard of us all. Then there's three strikers moving on, namely Darren McQueen, Scott Wilson and Ibby Akanbi. Unlike the other two whose goal records were nowhere near satisfactory, Akanbi's case is slightly different because he was an impressive stopgap player simply disadvantaged by the quality and depth he was competing with. Despite registering two goals and four assists from just three starts around late November/early December, he didn't make another but could now prove a real asset elsewhere in this division. Finally, it has since been announced that Will Wright has joined Gillingham upon the expiry of his contract here. You cannot begrudge any player seizing an opportunity higher up the pyramid, let alone one who has been at the club for four years, during which we've watched him evolve into a ball-playing defender that regularly contributes at the other end too, particularly through set-pieces. Over ten assists two seasons running underlines his ability, but in truth the whole backline needed restructuring regardless and he was complicit in it's leakiness. There could be further outgoings yet amongst the others still involved in current negotiations, so our predicament remains somewhat unclear as the amount of those who eventually leave will consequently shape how extensive our summer recruitment needs to be.
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On the eve of Barnet's visit for an important league clash, Victoria Road hosted a Fans' Forum attended by club representatives Daryl McMahon, Steve Thompson and transatlantic owner Peter Freund, all of whom answered questions pertaining to their relevant areas. The main topics are below:On our philosophy...McMahon started by delivering an insightful presentation documenting the principles he has attempted to instil within the team since arriving in January 2020 to what he candidly described as a bad culture around the club. He requested confidentiality beyond the confines of the clubhouse hall given that there were detailed breakdowns of scenarios like attacking/defending corners and where specific players would be positioned accordingly. Relating this to individual games, he then revealed an example scouting report for a typical National League clash, using the most recent one at Bromley as an example. It featured extensive breakdowns of the opposition and, consequently, where the game could potentially be won.
On the season's remainder...McMahon emphasised the point that many teams we have to play also featured in our near-flawless opening eight games of the season, and played a video showcasing every goal throughout that glorious period, which has presumably also been relayed to the players as a motivational tool to get into the play-offs. Anything below, however, he acknowledged would constitute a failure albeit with the caveat of it being an incredibly tough division in which many sides have massive spending power. On individual players...a few were mentioned. First was Robinson in relation to the incredible statistic that he averages around 13k covered in distance every game. Another player portrayed as an incredible hard worker was Morias and the reason he came off against Grimsby around a fortnight ago, to the opposition of supporters, was simply because he was reaching the threshold where he was likely to sustain an injury. McMahon stated how shrewd a signing he's been and that our initial approach was rebuffed by King's Lynn whose valuation vastly exceeded ours, but we eventually got him for a more reasonable figure. It was a similar case with Onariase and we wanted to wait for our desired man instead of making an impulsive alternative signing for the sake of it. Another smart acquisition, much like Morias, was Mo Sagaf - McMahon stating barely anybody would have heard of a player who was just 'sitting in his flat in Barking' before we identified him. Also receiving praise was Balanta, whom he loves because he's the one player you'd want on the pitch to produce a moment of magic in an otherwise cagey game, despite the question pertaining to his lack of suitability to our overall system. On Joey Jones' loan departure...it had reached a point where he was inevitably on his way out of the club and we didn't want to harm his career by denying a move to Grimsby, even if it came at our own expense with regard to the play-off push. Peter Freund was more forthright in his opinion, implying Jones was a bad influence because he didn't fit the club's culture and issuing a somewhat cryptic statement that we don't want people who object to others being in the team. On McMahon's new contract...Freund not only stands by the decision due to McMahon working tirelessly hard and being unanimously trusted, but is actually ''thrilled'' we tied him down because it is believed we ''cannot do better from a coaching standpoint.'' He does express disappointment at our current position and reiterates that anything below a top-seven finish would fall below expectations however still visualises a pathway there this season. On John Still's exit to Southend...Thompson thinks his role was slightly overstated and that McMahon has adequate contacts to compensate, including from the Football League. He also has regular contact with an agent who we often work with, despite Thompson expressing his displeasure of the profession and the money it drains from the game even at our level, which was integral in the Onariase deal. Whereas Still would regularly attend three lower division games per week, McMahon instead painstakingly sifts through hours of video footage to identify potential gems. On Yoan Zouma 'cat-gate'...it was stressed that Zouma is a young man, with only his elder brother for family in a foreign country, who has made a mistake that he regrets to the point where he has regularly been in tears. Furthermore, the point was made that he only shared the video to friends, one of whom sold it to the newspapers for money, and that he's received adequate punishment through the initial club suspension. The club wanted to let the judicial procedure run it's course and not go beyond that by imposing any further consequence ourselves. On our apprentice scheme...Thompson believes it is positively unique to the setup anybody else has at this level, which he wants to expand next season and suggested entering them into a specialist college league to do so. However, he is leaning towards keeping it a small group, sending them out on loan to ensure the players get vital men's football under their belts as has been fundamental to the progress of Daniel Obi and Aaron Blair this campaign. If Dagenham had even the faintest quantity of battle-hardened resistance within their indisputably strong armoury, they would have contested an FA Trophy semi final over the weekend while sitting neatly perched inside the play-offs.Instead, on what was meant to be their free weekend anyway due to the uneven team quantity within the division, they kept fitness up by playing St Albans City in an exhibition friendly that may well set the tone for an anticlimactic finale to a season seemingly descending towards nothingness once again. Even if Dagenham manage the increasingly unlikely task of gatecrashing the top seven, their catastrophic inability to triumph against similar calibre teams would almost certainly condemn them to another year at this level regardless. While other sides have progressively evolved, Dagenham seem no more intelligent or defensively astute since that glorious curtain-raiser away to Stockport County in late August. Nobody who witnessed the energy-driven masterclass from the bouncing away end at Edgeley Park would have anticipated a failure to make the play-offs altogether, though, especially when it was consolidated by a near-flawless few weeks thereafter. Yet that's where things are seemingly heading unless there's a massive upturn in form akin to their blistering run at the end of last season: a lesser extent of failure, misconstrued by some as success. Ironically a corner appeared to have been turned in one sense last month, during which the Daggers accumulated as many league clean sheets as the rest of their season combined, however the damaging defeats interspersed within demonstrate why that's merely superficial. While beating mid-table teams with nothing to play for is a fundamental necessity, it means nothing when we constantly fall short in the games that really matter, and our three defeats throughout March all contribute to a worrying narrative.
Three very different kinds of loss but all alluding to the same deep-rooted mentality issue. It leaves their season lacking direction ahead of a daunting week in which they play Boreham Wood then Bromley having not beaten anybody inside the current top seven since August; if their hopes are dangling by a thread now, they could be completely dead and buried this time next week unless the Daggers somehow pull off two very uncharacteristic results.
Our cause hasn't been aided, either, by the inexplicable decision to loan out Joey Jones to play-off rivals Grimsby Town - certainly I know which team looked more in need of a driving midfielder when we played them at the end of March. The writing was clearly on the wall for his exit however giving another team the opportunity to unlock his undisputed quality, potentially at our own expense, is frankly remarkable and symbolic of us not being streetwise whatsoever in our approach towards success. The statistics not only substantiate that belief but blatantly portray Dagenham as a bang average side minus the false omen of those opening few weeks where they caught everybody off guard. Once again their performance over the whole campaign has been wholly disproportionate to the healthy budget funding it, for which responsibility lies primarily with Daryl McMahon. Essentially, with the gap beneath the play-offs widening and the remaining games ebbing away, what's required is a near-perfect month during which they collect every available point - certainly there won't be many within the fanbase who have the necessary faith in the team to realistically believe that the season will end in anything but the failure alluded to above. A monumental week awaits in Daggers' quest to reach Wembley on two fronts as they prepare for three games of enormous magnitude off the back of an encouraging fortnight.
The first of those comes in the FA Trophy, justifiably regarded as a low-priority afterthought for teams competing around the play-off region of the National League, towards which Dagenham have elevated themselves through consecutive 3-0 victories in the last two midweeks, but the allure of the gradually emerging Wembley arch in the horizon means they have little option but to continue taking it seriously as York City from a division below travel to Victoria Road this weekend alongside 800+ of their supporters, with victory securing a semi-final berth. John Askey's Minstermen will present stern opposition having not been defeated in nine games, including a commendable victory at AFC Fylde recently. They've progressed beyond Blyth Spartans, Matlock Town, Slough Town and Morpeth Town to set up a trip this weekend that will undoubtedly be a sterner proposition. Amongst their ranks are some recognisable players at this level including Mitch Hancox, Michael Woods, Michael Duckworth and Clayton Donaldson. One of the sides the Daggers have beaten enroute, Southend United, then await on Tuesday evening for an eagerly-awaited renewal of rivalries that promises to be a sterner test than the two straightforward victories already secured this season due to the fact that nobody else has managed to defeat the Shrimpers since the turn of the year. Extra incentive to extend their thirteen league game unbeaten streak comes via possibly reclaiming the bragging rights that were relinquished at Victoria Road, and the unrelenting ridicule they duly faced in the aftermath. It's a first visit for Daggers fans to Roots Hall since 2014/15, after which both sides went in very different directions, and precedes another important clash against Notts County several days later which will be equally influential towards shaping their fate as we enter the business end of a campaign. The necessity to claw back the five points they're currently adrift should not be lost on Daryl McMahon, who was tasked with making the top seven as a minimum target having failed to do so the previous season. He has a sizeable squad at his disposal, bolstered in recent weeks with the additions of Ansu Janneh, Brandon Comley and Josh Hare, the latter two of whom have looked very impressive in the past two games after failing to demonstrate their abilities much beforehand. Most impactful, though, have been compatible strike duo Paul McCallum and Junior Morias that has accounted for each of our past six goals. In Macca's case, it's now five goals from four games, taking him to twelve for the season overall, which suggests he's building up to top form again. His goals at Yeovil were predatory finishes synonymous with the best forwards at this level, a category McCallum should firmly be considered a part of despite struggling for consistency throughout his spell at the club thus far. His current partner Morias' form has been such that Josh Walker cannot get into the side, and even club captain Balanta will struggle too now he's back from a relatively lengthy injury layoff spanning a few weeks. Overall, we're in a position whereby we possess the luxury of good squad depth, a valuable asset as we hurtle towards the season's climax. The performances over the last fortnight need to be a platform on which we can build, starting with this crucial trio of upcoming fixtures. Daggers' central defender Yoan Zouma has mindlessly triggered football's latest worldwide scandal by capturing the unanimously-condemned footage of his brother Kurt inflicting violence upon a visibly distressed cat, in which he is entirely complicit having not only declined to intervene but actively expressed wholly misjudged laughter towards the events.
The collateral damage to the club extended far beyond merely disrupting preparations for their FA Trophy fifth round clash with Spennymoor Town and the subsequent decision to suspend him from competitive football, following a brief period of deliberation, has incredibly dominated the headlines almost as much as the incident itself - to such an extent that it was featured as the top breaking news story on Sky News amongst other sites while also making the newspapers a day later. However, this hasn't prevented a barrage of abuse from a vocal contingent within society, firstly animal lovers advocating sponsorship boycotts - despite the Daggers conducting themselves with commendable diligence from the very outset - then those redirecting the racism rhetoric initially voiced by Michail Antonio which, while raising valid questions about where clubs draw the line on moral reprehensibility, interestingly provided a handy distraction technique from the intensifying heat around his employers West Ham distastefully fielding Kurt Zouma in their starting line-up a night prior.... Social media, though, only masquerades as the real world rather than being a microcosm of it and even acknowledging the above comments - perpetuated by people unable to pinpoint Dagenham on the map let alone aware of anything about the club - does them an undue service to be honest. Yet one undeniable truth underpinning the saga is economics. Had Kurt Zouma been a dispensable academy player as opposed to a lucrative 30 million signing then it's very plausible that West Ham may have taken a more socially favourable stance. Similarly, it could be theorised, would Dagenham were it was one of our more important players. Many would argue that squad status is irrelevant but naturally it will always play a sizeable role in situations like these. If he's unceremoniously booted out of the Hammers then there would be an endless queue of sides desperate to take advantage. Thus, a debate has also rightfully materialised about whether Zouma should receive a harsher institutional punishment than players who have committed considerably worse offences within the footballing world, such as Marcos Alonso, Luke McCormick and several others. Either way, it's an enormous relief to have footballing matters to focus on this weekend as focus shifts to Spennymoor Town, where a victory would leave us two games from Wembley. |
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May 2024
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