From Facebook

[daggerfirst]

Dunno what the policy is for posting stuff from the Facebook page but this needs to be read.

Posted by Gerry Hannings son

I’m pretty sure the club will still be here next season, whatever we are being or not being told!

I’ve never posted on here before as my dad was a former director of the club for many many years. It has been extremely sad this year to see what has become of the club. For the record my dad fought long and hard from within over many of the recent years. Resigning just over a season ago. (Never even got a thankyou for his 20+ years of giving his time freely) He predicted where this club was going to end up and voiced it in the boardroom on many occasions being shut down as talking nonsense. I find it very hard to comprehend that the very reason the club was set up as a members club was to protect it from any one person coming in and destroying the club, yet the change was forced through to sell to an outsider because of the financial problems the club was facing. It’s interesting that the people left in charge took us into that position and blame everyone but themselves for the problems. It was them that sold the message to the members that this was the best way to go, so it is my opinion that they are the ones that should be left to carry the can! Flags and emails are, if we really analysed it, a pathetic excuse to blame all of our problems on, and yet this is the message constantly being delivered! Come on really? Just sums up for me the political gamesmanship being played out here. They really like the forums and fans to argue about this point as it’s shields then from their mistakes.

I’m now 45 years old and grew up as a fan of Redbridge forest. I learnt my trade at the club filming the matches as a 16 year old before doing it professionally and directing match of the day for over 9 years. Redbridge Forest then merged with Dagenham (because they were in financial problems) and then became Dagenham and Redbridge, and in actual fact I used to also watch Leytonstone ilford and Walthamstow avenue before that. Not one of those former clubs were ran in such a way as to have shareholders at the top whom have no-one to answer to. It’s so very sad to see, the history of our club goes back many many years and were run by football fans, football people (former players etc.) who gave a big portion of their lives into making the various clubs tick, mistakes were made for sure, but always fixed, and discussed as a board! If it is the last we see of our club there are many unanswered questions and explanations as to where the rot set in. It is my opinion that the moment we had one person at the top calling the shots we were on a path to where we are now.

I believe It became a club that was being run like a political party, utilising many political tricks and games. The boardroom slowly was eradicated through divide and conquer, good people with the club at heart were having to constantly fight against at first one man, then slowly the introduction of - ‘friends’ and ‘yes’ men, to the point where the opposition of the said mans opinion was fruitless. In my opinion just because someone says it’s true it doesn’t mean it’s true! Yet the boardroom simply stopped asking questions. They didn’t dare ask their friend difficult questions!

It really was only a matter of time until the protection of being a membership club was going to be challenged and a complete takeover - which is now the case - was complete. We can blame mr Tamplin, we can blame mr Hopkins, but if we had remained as a membership club none of the problems we are facing now would have been allowed to materialise, and then if the club was being run financially badly, the members would have had an opportunity to vote the person or persons off the board before too much damage was done. This was how the club was set up.

I hope to see the day, soon enough but I wouldn’t bet on it, that the people responsible walk away and hand over the reins, they’ll have to be bought out of course. A worse case scenario for me is that those two people left in charge of this club at present walk away with a very handsome sum personally should the club surrender its lease to the council early, or that they find other investors to let them carry on the club in the same vein as they have been running it for the past 3-4 years. But surely that wouldn’t happen would it?

Best scenario for me is that the friendly club that I remember from 15 years plus ago returns, where the volunteers were appreciated by all, the clubhouse had a great atmosphere, and the expectations were not to win the league at all costs but to compete as best as the club could. The bars used to be a massive income for the club, and in actual fact was probably the most profitable bit of the club. Regular nights were organised, The family atmosphere was there, the friendly club reputation was there and we had a group of players that would mingle with the fans, get to know them and gave us something to cheer about. That was all eradicated a while ago, and I know by whom. I even helped put together a package of things that the club could do to help this, and which also included a weekend long music festival (something I now organise all over the uk). This had the potential to bring in decent money. One of the did peoples response was to say the council wouldn’t allow it (just cos he says it’s true doesn’t mean it’s true!) and the other was only concerned that he would have a vip seat at the front. They never came back and tbh the though of working with those two filled me with dread! - on a side note just after this I was part of a team that put on Tom jones in Lichfield, olly Murs at Carlisle Fc and various other concerts, so knew the contacts and how to do it. Potentially a weekend of concerts just at the end of the football season could have raised 200k plus, let alone bar takings.

Anyhow here’s to getting our club, its history and its friendly reputation back, maybe the only way to do that is to hit rock bottom so that the necessary changes can happen.

[Auntie Merge]

Dunno what the policy is for posting stuff from the Facebook page but this needs to be read.

Posted by Gerry Hannings son
Best scenario for me is that the friendly club that I remember from 15 years plus ago returns, where the volunteers were appreciated by all, the clubhouse had a great atmosphere, and the expectations were not to win the league at all costs but to compete as best as the club could. The bars used to be a massive income for the club, and in actual fact was probably the most profitable bit of the club. Regular nights were organised, The family atmosphere was there, the friendly club reputation was there and we had a group of players that would mingle with the fans, get to know them and gave us something to cheer about. That was all eradicated a while ago, and I know by whom. I even helped put together a package of things that the club could do to help this, and which also included a weekend long music festival (something I now organise all over the uk). This had the potential to bring in decent money. One of the did peoples response was to say the council wouldn’t allow it (just cos he says it’s true doesn’t mean it’s true!) and the other was only concerned that he would have a vip seat at the front. They never came back and tbh the though of working with those two filled me with dread! - on a side note just after this I was part of a team that put on Tom jones in Lichfield, olly Murs at Carlisle Fc and various other concerts, so knew the contacts and how to do it. Potentially a weekend of concerts just at the end of the football season could have raised 200k plus, let alone bar takings.

Anyhow here’s to getting our club, its history and its friendly reputation back, maybe the only way to do that is to hit rock bottom so that the necessary changes can happen.

This.
I've lost count of the number of discussions I've had over the past year on how to bring people back. You do this by bringing the club back to where it was, as a hub of the community, however wide that community has to be.
We've discussed beer festivals, guest beers, having a schedule of events at the start of the season handed out to people as they come in for matches and sticking to that schedule. It isn't difficult to assume that the Saturday of the week of Halloween will be a Halloween disco, a Christmas disco and a sit down dinner. What happened to our 25th anniversary dinner and dance? (the same way as the 25th anniversary book it appears). I know the halls are sometimes used during the day, but the small hall, as well as it fancy disco lights, should ensure it has conference level facilities (they might already be in there) - a projector, screen, flip chart, etc, so you can hire it out as a daytime meeting room. If the club doesn't want to do catering for this, find a local caterer. The club also needs to be upping its game food wise and regularly plugging this to away fans on their forums before the fixture. (e.g. post on their forum: you are welcome in our clubhouse, this beer is on offer at X a pint, burger and chips £5, football on the telly).

It's been mentioned before about the Ilford Palais reunion group looking for venues. There are other places too. The halls used to be booked out all the time. It seems wrong that it appears they aren't at the moment. We have a huge car park, are a taxi ride away from Romford Station, a walk from Dagenham East, we should be a come-to venue.

You don't necessarily go for the cheap beer all the time. It doesn't have to be the cheapest place to drink, it has to be the best place to drink - the best atmosphere, the best food for the price, friendly and welcoming. I always used to come over mid-week to watch the football on the tv, the atmosphere during some of the World Cup games was brilliant. Yet I don't see the club mentioning or starting to pull people in to watch during the close season - probably gone the way of season ticket sales.

The marketing of the club has been so poor in recent years. Why would anyone want to come into a club that says 'support us, we're broke'. I know what makes me go to venues, its that they are fun, friendly, good atmosphere etc. As has been said elsewhere, we've a 1980s football administration running a 2018 football club.

Glyn Hopkin was starting to do a brilliant job - he knew the best thing to do was to start by smartening up the clubhouse. It's a shame he got distracted. If he came back and worked with the supporters, the real supporters, the ones who have the positive ideas and who are prepared to work with whatever they've got to get the club back on track. And we run the team within our means and be the best team we can afford. If only he would come back and help us build a real club for the future.

So much more I could write or add, but I will stop there.

[Chigwellian]

Dunno what the policy is for posting stuff from the Facebook page but this needs to be read.

Posted by Gerry Hannings son
Best scenario for me is that the friendly club that I remember from 15 years plus ago returns, where the volunteers were appreciated by all, the clubhouse had a great atmosphere, and the expectations were not to win the league at all costs but to compete as best as the club could. The bars used to be a massive income for the club, and in actual fact was probably the most profitable bit of the club. Regular nights were organised, The family atmosphere was there, the friendly club reputation was there and we had a group of players that would mingle with the fans, get to know them and gave us something to cheer about. That was all eradicated a while ago, and I know by whom. I even helped put together a package of things that the club could do to help this, and which also included a weekend long music festival (something I now organise all over the uk). This had the potential to bring in decent money. One of the did peoples response was to say the council wouldn’t allow it (just cos he says it’s true doesn’t mean it’s true!) and the other was only concerned that he would have a vip seat at the front. They never came back and tbh the though of working with those two filled me with dread! - on a side note just after this I was part of a team that put on Tom jones in Lichfield, olly Murs at Carlisle Fc and various other concerts, so knew the contacts and how to do it. Potentially a weekend of concerts just at the end of the football season could have raised 200k plus, let alone bar takings.

Anyhow here’s to getting our club, its history and its friendly reputation back, maybe the only way to do that is to hit rock bottom so that the necessary changes can happen.

This.
I've lost count of the number of discussions I've had over the past year on how to bring people back. You do this by bringing the club back to where it was, as a hub of the community, however wide that community has to be.
We've discussed beer festivals, guest beers, having a schedule of events at the start of the season handed out to people as they come in for matches and sticking to that schedule. It isn't difficult to assume that the Saturday of the week of Halloween will be a Halloween disco, a Christmas disco and a sit down dinner. What happened to our 25th anniversary dinner and dance? (the same way as the 25th anniversary book it appears). I know the halls are sometimes used during the day, but the small hall, as well as it fancy disco lights, should ensure it has conference level facilities (they might already be in there) - a projector, screen, flip chart, etc, so you can hire it out as a daytime meeting room. If the club doesn't want to do catering for this, find a local caterer. The club also needs to be upping its game food wise and regularly plugging this to away fans on their forums before the fixture. (e.g. post on their forum: you are welcome in our clubhouse, this beer is on offer at X a pint, burger and chips £5, football on the telly).

It's been mentioned before about the Ilford Palais reunion group looking for venues. There are other places too. The halls used to be booked out all the time. It seems wrong that it appears they aren't at the moment. We have a huge car park, are a taxi ride away from Romford Station, a walk from Dagenham East, we should be a come-to venue.

You don't necessarily go for the cheap beer all the time. It doesn't have to be the cheapest place to drink, it has to be the best place to drink - the best atmosphere, the best food for the price, friendly and welcoming. I always used to come over mid-week to watch the football on the tv, the atmosphere during some of the World Cup games was brilliant. Yet I don't see the club mentioning or starting to pull people in to watch during the close season - probably gone the way of season ticket sales.

The marketing of the club has been so poor in recent years. Why would anyone want to come into a club that says 'support us, we're broke'. I know what makes me go to venues, its that they are fun, friendly, good atmosphere etc. As has been said elsewhere, we've a 1980s football administration running a 2018 football club.

Glyn Hopkin was starting to do a brilliant job - he knew the best thing to do was to start by smartening up the clubhouse. It's a shame he got distracted. If he came back and worked with the supporters, the real supporters, the ones who have the positive ideas and who are prepared to work with whatever they've got to get the club back on track. And we run the team within our means and be the best team we can afford. If only he would come back and help us build a real club for the future.

So much more I could write or add, but I will stop there.

You still don't get it..... Glyn Hopkin is the bloke who pulled out!!
He is the guy... with his mates Kim Jung and the plumber that will be read about on Wiki as the people who killed Dagenham & Redbridge FC

[Voice of reason]

Dunno what the policy is for posting stuff from the Facebook page but this needs to be read.

Posted by Gerry Hannings son

I’m pretty sure the club will still be here next season, whatever we are being or not being told!

I’ve never posted on here before as my dad was a former director of the club for many many years. It has been extremely sad this year to see what has become of the club. For the record my dad fought long and hard from within over many of the recent years. Resigning just over a season ago. (Never even got a thankyou for his 20+ years of giving his time freely) He predicted where this club was going to end up and voiced it in the boardroom on many occasions being shut down as talking nonsense. I find it very hard to comprehend that the very reason the club was set up as a members club was to protect it from any one person coming in and destroying the club, yet the change was forced through to sell to an outsider because of the financial problems the club was facing. It’s interesting that the people left in charge took us into that position and blame everyone but themselves for the problems. It was them that sold the message to the members that this was the best way to go, so it is my opinion that they are the ones that should be left to carry the can! Flags and emails are, if we really analysed it, a pathetic excuse to blame all of our problems on, and yet this is the message constantly being delivered! Come on really? Just sums up for me the political gamesmanship being played out here. They really like the forums and fans to argue about this point as it’s shields then from their mistakes.

I’m now 45 years old and grew up as a fan of Redbridge forest. I learnt my trade at the club filming the matches as a 16 year old before doing it professionally and directing match of the day for over 9 years. Redbridge Forest then merged with Dagenham (because they were in financial problems) and then became Dagenham and Redbridge, and in actual fact I used to also watch Leytonstone ilford and Walthamstow avenue before that. Not one of those former clubs were ran in such a way as to have shareholders at the top whom have no-one to answer to. It’s so very sad to see, the history of our club goes back many many years and were run by football fans, football people (former players etc.) who gave a big portion of their lives into making the various clubs tick, mistakes were made for sure, but always fixed, and discussed as a board! If it is the last we see of our club there are many unanswered questions and explanations as to where the rot set in. It is my opinion that the moment we had one person at the top calling the shots we were on a path to where we are now.

I believe It became a club that was being run like a political party, utilising many political tricks and games. The boardroom slowly was eradicated through divide and conquer, good people with the club at heart were having to constantly fight against at first one man, then slowly the introduction of - ‘friends’ and ‘yes’ men, to the point where the opposition of the said mans opinion was fruitless. In my opinion just because someone says it’s true it doesn’t mean it’s true! Yet the boardroom simply stopped asking questions. They didn’t dare ask their friend difficult questions!

It really was only a matter of time until the protection of being a membership club was going to be challenged and a complete takeover - which is now the case - was complete. We can blame mr Tamplin, we can blame mr Hopkins, but if we had remained as a membership club none of the problems we are facing now would have been allowed to materialise, and then if the club was being run financially badly, the members would have had an opportunity to vote the person or persons off the board before too much damage was done. This was how the club was set up.

I hope to see the day, soon enough but I wouldn’t bet on it, that the people responsible walk away and hand over the reins, they’ll have to be bought out of course. A worse case scenario for me is that those two people left in charge of this club at present walk away with a very handsome sum personally should the club surrender its lease to the council early, or that they find other investors to let them carry on the club in the same vein as they have been running it for the past 3-4 years. But surely that wouldn’t happen would it?

Best scenario for me is that the friendly club that I remember from 15 years plus ago returns, where the volunteers were appreciated by all, the clubhouse had a great atmosphere, and the expectations were not to win the league at all costs but to compete as best as the club could. The bars used to be a massive income for the club, and in actual fact was probably the most profitable bit of the club. Regular nights were organised, The family atmosphere was there, the friendly club reputation was there and we had a group of players that would mingle with the fans, get to know them and gave us something to cheer about. That was all eradicated a while ago, and I know by whom. I even helped put together a package of things that the club could do to help this, and which also included a weekend long music festival (something I now organise all over the uk). This had the potential to bring in decent money. One of the did peoples response was to say the council wouldn’t allow it (just cos he says it’s true doesn’t mean it’s true!) and the other was only concerned that he would have a vip seat at the front. They never came back and tbh the though of working with those two filled me with dread! - on a side note just after this I was part of a team that put on Tom jones in Lichfield, olly Murs at Carlisle Fc and various other concerts, so knew the contacts and how to do it. Potentially a weekend of concerts just at the end of the football season could have raised 200k plus, let alone bar takings.

Anyhow here’s to getting our club, its history and its friendly reputation back, maybe the only way to do that is to hit rock bottom so that the necessary changes can happen.

I'd say this was game set and match
It's obvious who the culprit is
He managed to inveigle his way to control of the club while alienating many far better people than him on his way up the greasy pole
As well as several supporters - especially when he'd had a few drinks
Not a very nice man
At all actually

[Auntie Merge]

You still don't get it..... Glyn Hopkin is the bloke who pulled out!!
He is the guy... with his mates Kim Jung and the plumber that will be read about on Wiki as the people who killed Dagenham & Redbridge FC

You still don't get it. Glyn Hopkin paid the wages this month. He might be paying more that we don't know about. Don't instantly dismiss him as the bad guy, particularly if you want the club to continue.

[RayleighDagger1986]

Glyn may be paying the wages this month but the current predicament is down to him. IMO he has become the bad guy and I wished he hadn't. I had so much hope with him at the helm last August and I dont think I'll be able to forgive him for what he has done. He promised investment and should at least seen us through to the season end.

[Auntie Merge]

He has invested in this club for 25 years. You blame him and can’t forgive him but you don’t blame the people with the flags or the board members that didn’t secure that investment in writing.

Glyn still owes 38% of the shares. I hear on the grapevine that there is the slightest of slight chances that he possibly may be rethinking his decision. How true that is I don’t know. But you have to open your heart and mind to the fact it is unlikely he will be gone from this club forever, the Glyn Hopkin advertising/sponsorship will hopefully be back and he will be involved in some capacity.

People posting that they don’t want him back and they can never forgive him, when it wasn’t entirely his fault, are being short-sighted, particularly when the future of the club hangs in the balance and we might be calling on him to continue paying the wages and seeing us through.

Who knows, he could still be reading this forum or the Facebook page and base his decision on what he reads.

[lupins]

If he does read either of those mediums I hope he realises that the posters are in the main small in number and not representative of the majority of Supporters as is often claimed but are the majority of posters

[Blackie645]

And what do you base your assumption on then, Lupins, your own personal opinion, you don’t know this.

[DevonDagger]

If Glyn chipping in is keeping the club alive, so be it, I don't think he should be criticised for this.

I remember him stating that his solicitors/advisers/etc had told him the supporters' flags will give him a bad image. I've said it before - I wonder if those same advisers at the time also cared to inform him of the image painted of football club owners who become labelled responsible (fairly or not) for clubs that fold. Obviously I have no idea whether this could be any part of the reason for his recent contribution.

Personally I think too much has happened for him to come back in the same full capacity as previously, granted I'm not going to run up any flags of my own if he did. I'm tired of hearing and reading about it, I just wish come 3pm, 4th August that we will finally get back to talking about actual football.

[RayleighDagger1986]

He has invested in this club for 25 years. You blame him and can’t forgive him but you don’t blame the people with the flags or the board members that didn’t secure that investment in writing.

Glyn still owes 38% of the shares. I hear on the grapevine that there is the slightest of slight chances that he possibly may be rethinking his decision. How true that is I don’t know. But you have to open your heart and mind to the fact it is unlikely he will be gone from this club forever, the Glyn Hopkin advertising/sponsorship will hopefully be back and he will be involved in some capacity.

People posting that they don’t want him back and they can never forgive him, when it wasn’t entirely his fault, are being short-sighted, particularly when the future of the club hangs in the balance and we might be calling on him to continue paying the wages and seeing us through.

Who knows, he could still be reading this forum or the Facebook page and base his decision on what he reads.

For someone with 25 years investment, I'd hope he would have had the club at heart but to walk away like that at the time he did seems very odd. Why would a 25 year association be thrown down the pan in an instant. As I said previously, he could have kept to his word and seen us through till June at least with the understanding of stepping down then.
If he is reading this and re-thinking his position, which is his prerogative but its too late imo. We have to move on without his money, we need to go back to basics. Just live within our means and if that means starting all over again, then so be it!

[Auntie Merge]

And what do you base your assumption on then, Lupins, your own personal opinion, you don’t know this.

As mentioned before there are around 50 posters on here with over 100 posts. That is not representative of our regular home crowd of 1000+.

Twice as many people as that, all whom are regular supporters, read this forum but have told me they don’t post on here because they are embarrassed to be associated with some of the views expressed here.

Re any slim possibility of Glyn coming back - at the last game I was told repeatedly by many people, that if I am still in touch with him please could I let him know that they want him back.
John Still also asked me to ask him to come back. I get at least 5 messages every single day from people asking me to tell him to come back. It’s starting to interfere with my life!

Now I have no idea why people think I have any extra connection or inroad to Glyn than the next person, but Glyn if you are reading this, please ignore a few negative posts and listen to the silent majority and the people who don’t post on the internet. They want you back.

[Diggerthedog]

The flags are gone as are the people that were associated with them after they were (wrongly) banned, so what he waiting for now?

[Dagdale]

I thought football supporter forum's were about the differences of opinions between us the fans? Tell me one that is a bed of roses and easy reading? If a supporter can't voice his or her opinions what's the point in one running? Supporting football and a football club use to be so different how sad its become so sensitive and I think most of us know why. After 50 years watching it feel closest I've ever been on leaving it.

[dagger4eva]

I'm firmly in the "he can bugger off camp"

He should pay the next two months wages (as HE committed to do last year) then walk away from the club.

If he is able to recover some of his outlay by means of another investor coming, in then great and so be it.

But I'd preferably like us to go back to living well within our means and having a club we can be proud of, rather than some nob jockey's toy who has the ability to walk away and leave us on our knees at the 1st sign of trouble and unrest.