Welcome Jag.
I too remember well the days you speak of, having most likely been one of the 200 standing in the sieve watching the likes of Carshalton Athletic or Dorking play against us. But to give the current situation a little more 60's perspective, in the mid '60's even though Dagenham were not an easy team to beat, rather than stand pat, the board decided they wanted the club to be even more of a success, so took the decision to hire Ted Hardy.
In the day, it was a dangerous decision, because Ted's reputation as a hard task master and certainly not someone to be trifled with, most definitely preceded him. In the history of Dagenham FC it was the most pivotal decision the board could have made. The board at that time "took a chance" and seized the opportunity to take the team not to the next level, but several levels higher. The rest, as they say is history.
Currently, this board have set the success level so low, a 10% difference the wrong way (I read a placement of 22nd is the objective) will spell relegation and there appears no cushion for a downside. It seems survival, and nothing else appears to be the motto. With a 22nd placement as an objective instead of promotion, this board must be the only board in the league that considers failure as a success. To finish 22nd for sure we would lose more games than we would win. While not the be all and end all, in professional sports, I always believed winning was pretty important because winning does mean survival.
The current manager, coming off a questionable year (yet again) was given a new 2 year contract which seems to have confused all (or mostly all) who watched the team struggle last season and the season prior to that. The board seems to have missed or left out the section of his contract with regard to "Conduct unbecoming of an employee" as the manager seems to be able to insult the very people who pay his salary at will.
And perhaps and most importantly, the fans going through the turnstiles are clearly not receiving value for money and if the decisions made by this board are indicative of concerns over money, they had best get their hard hats ready as it's gonna get worse. While I am convinced the current manager is not up to the task, I also have to wonder if the current board are also lacking in the ability to make the right decisions to keep this team as a going concern. I use the term "going" loosely.
I wonder what the board of the mid '60's would be doing right now if the situation we face today, existed then.
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