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So it begins, ins and outs

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liamdhfc said:
AveryDave

I will respond as much as I can below in line

Some personal thoughts on a couple of the subjects you raise - to use the most straightforward example on the media side it doesn't feel like it should be too difficult to use the club's various social channels to keep supporters up to date on news like player moves - I could be underestimating that dramatically but clubs in levels below us don't struggle with that. It's clearly doable. The sole method of communicating with supporters shouldn't be a match day programme which you have to pay for.

It is very easy to do and there is a set formula for doing it, it just has not been done well enough. I anticipate some restructuring to address it. I will make sure all articles are brought up to date on the website and socials in the next few days.
I am also on setting a series of regular Fans Forums to allow everybody to plan in advance which we will get out across the channels.

Is the reason it's not happening bureaucratic? Like the media team can't post anything without Board approval which takes time to get done? That's a total guess on my part, but is there unnecessary process slowing things down? Or is there an obstruction in communication from the management of the playing side to the media team - so they don't actually know what's going on because they aren't told? For an area that should be very straightforward with paid staff involved it's hard to work out why it's so problematic - whilst there's always more to things that meet the public eye we're never going to know what those things are if the club doesn't tell us.

Agreed, but there is no obstruction to it happening and the board will address it. I can assure you the media team are aware of signings, outgoings and incomings in plenty of time. Club policy on new signings will always be to announce once paperwork is registered as we don't want to "do a Dover" but that is all the restrictions in place.

For my part - I've been going for over ten years, I've never volunteered my time and I feel no real compulsion to do so now. I care greatly about the club but it's hard to see what's there to care about at the moment, both on and off the pitch. I've thought about getting in touch with the club in the past to see what I could do to help, and did put some tentative feelers out at one stage which never came to anything, but it's a bit intimidating to shout into the void without knowing what it might entail. After a decade in East Dulwich I now live in North London, and just getting to and from games and dealing with the crowds means it takes up a big chunk of the day and I've got life stuff to do around it. And ultimately nothing I can see from the club makes it feel worth my while to do more than that. If my personal circumstances were different I might have a different view, but they're not planned to change any time soon.

Absolutely understand about time commitments and understanding what roles involve. I learned the hard way by doing it but that's not ideal. I think it's more about knowing what skills people have and using them to enhance what we do.

And a final thought - for the first time since I started going I'm considering drifting away to another club. I live within walking distance of Haringey Borough, going to watch a game there takes less than three hours of my Saturday rather than double that, and it seems like a nice place to go. No idea what the tipping point might be, but it feels like it's getting closer and closer with every week that goes by. I do look terrible in yellow, though.

As somebody who equally travels to still attend, I understand that sometimes it feels like you are not appreciated. That is not the case at all and I think we should work on making sure we address the concerns you and others have, plus the suggestions for improvement. My email address is open to all of you to put forward your comments and suggestions. What would make you feel engaged again?

And on volunteers - that does seem to be a community which is shrinking when you'd have thought it should be increasing alongside the number of people coming to watch games. It plays into something that's been mentioned on these boards before but could that be because the club has failed to stay engaged with (and I realise I'm straying onto tricky ground here but I can't think of a better way to put it) longer term supporters in order to focus on getting 2,000+ to every home game without really caring if they are invested in the long term of the club or not? And as a result those supporters who have been going to games prior to the boom in popularity don't feel like it's worth their while to give their time when it appears there's very little coming back from the club in return?

Genuinely, I believe the club does care about its long term supporters but identifying and communicating directly becomes more difficult with the crowd increase. Learning to manage the crowd levels was a big education and the fire fighting just to keep going has been immense over a non stop period of some 6 years, which has culminated in the new stadium receiving permission. However, that has brought its own set of challenges that are receiving attention . The fact the club is still here is a minor miracle and much against the odds. Again, let me know in an email what you would like to see.

I'm also aware it could be those longer term supporters have moved away or aren't able to go to games anymore for plenty of other reasons, but why aren't they being replaced with newer, willing supporters? Why don't people want to give their time to the club?
I believe that the engagement part has primarily been left to the Trust as the supporters representative group and second largest shareholder. I believe it also needs some fresh impetus from the board and I hope to be able to give it some shortly (although I don't currently sit on the board).
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Hi liamdhfc - I massively appreciate you taking this forward to the club and also appreciate the feedback you've received. Thank you.

I'm happy to pick up the questions raised in the feedback directly with the person who you were in contact with - would it be possible to send me their email, in DMs if that's the best place to do so?

As some very general comments against the feedback to place against the context of the ongoing discussions that are being had on here - we've heard some of this before, it's time to see some action - I'm thinking around the advanced organisation of fans forums and just improving the day to day communications overall.

I also get frustrated by the questions getting flipped back so that it's on the supporters to come up with suggestions and say what they specifically want - that absolutely needs to be part of it but it needs to be a two way street - the club needs to provide the route for supporters to engage in a way that isn't just an email into an inbox which may or may not be responded to, and the club also need to come up with proactive initiatives from their end - especially when they choose when and where they want to engage with supporters, like widely ignoring Urban or ignoring questions on social media without providing an alternative.

And a final thought - the comment about supporter / volunteer engagement sitting with the Trust is a concern. It doesn't feel like the club should be content with handing that off, although hopefully the fresh impetus that's mentioned is shared by Board members and can be acted upon quickly.
 
2023/24 Squad:

Alfie Allen (Millwall)
Jerome Binnom-Williams (Maidstone United)
Sean Bonnett-Johnson (Concord)
Craig Braham-Barrett (Tonbridge Angels)
Paul Chalobah (Leatherhead)
Michael Chambers (Billericay Town)
Adrian Clifton (Maidenhead United)
R'avan Constable (Hanwell Town)
Adam Dougui (QPR)
Jerry Gyebi (Hungerford Town)
Kaya Hansson (Bromley)
Momodou Jallow (Tooting & Mitcham United)
Anthony Jeffrey (Billericay Town)
Kreshnic Krasniqi (retained)
Finlay Lovatt (Bromley)
Danny Mills (retained)
Sanchez Ming (retained)
Manny Parry (Welling United)
Richard Pingling (Haywards Heath Town)
Dwight Pascall (Kingstonian)
Mark Ricketts (Boreham Wood)
Elliot Romain (Ebbsfleet United)
Jack Ruddy (Cowdenbeath)
Miquel Scarlett (Eastbourne Borough)
Ryley Scott (Dagenham & Redbridge)
Ade Shokunbi (South Shields)
Hussein Siklawi (Tooting & Mitcham)
Luke Wanadio (Dover Athletic)
Marvel Ekpiteta (Bishop's Stortford)

CONFIRMED DEPARTURES:
Cem Tumkaya (Cray Valley PM)

Lots of side salads. Would not be at all surprised if we didn't see Allen again and it sounds like Ming has departed.

I am sure there will be a mixture of contracted and non-contracted but 29 players is a bit mad really.
 
The club Twitter account just posted a squad photo. Lo res but I counted 25 outfield players and 2 keepers.

Couldn't see Ming. Not sure about Ricketts who has also been MIA of late.
 
Bugpowder Dust said:
The club Twitter account just posted a squad photo. Lo res but I counted 25 outfield players and 2 keepers.

Couldn't see Ming. Not sure about Ricketts who has also been MIA of late.
Click to expand...
Isn't Ricketts at the front between Dugoui and Kresh?

20230928_173820.jpg

Ming seems to be absent but I'm still not familiar enough with all the new faces (and have never actually seen several of them play) to work out who else of the 29 on the most recent squad list isn't among the 27 here.
 
New GK. Up to 30 players.

2023/24 Squad:

Alfie Allen (Millwall)
Jerome Binnom-Williams (Maidstone United)
Sean Bonnett-Johnson (Concord)
Craig Braham-Barrett (Tonbridge Angels)
Paul Chalobah (Leatherhead)
Michael Chambers (Billericay Town)
Adrian Clifton (Maidenhead United)
R'avan Constable (Hanwell Town)
Adam Dougui (QPR)
Marvel Ekpiteta (Bishop's Stortford)
Jerry Gyebi (Hungerford Town)
Kaya Hansson (Bromley)
Momodou Jallow (Tooting & Mitcham United)
Anthony Jeffrey (Billericay Town)
Kreshnic Krasniqi (retained)
Will Lakin (Peterborough)
Finlay Lovatt (Bromley)
Danny Mills (retained)
Sanchez Ming (retained)
Manny Parry (Welling United)
Richard Pingling (Haywards Heath Town)
Dwight Pascall (Kingstonian)
Mark Ricketts (Boreham Wood)
Elliot Romain (Ebbsfleet United)
Jack Ruddy (Cowdenbeath)
Miquel Scarlett (Eastbourne Borough)
Ryley Scott (Dagenham & Redbridge)
Ade Shokunbi (South Shields)
Hussein Siklawi (Tooting & Mitcham)
Luke Wanadio (Dover Athletic)

CONFIRMED DEPARTURES:
Cem Tumkaya (Cray Valley PM)
 
Reasonably random signing - Akwo Ayuk, 30 year old attacking midfielder from Cameroon who last played for Akhisarspor in the Turkish second division. Couple of short spells with Maidstone and also Cheshunt previously.

 
And also Preston Edwards - although he's currently suspended, so can't play for the next two weeks.

Takes us up to 32 players (although some haven't been seen for weeks, so who knows), including four goalkeepers.

 
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So ... I thought we didn't have enough money/need to run a reserve team, but we definitely have enough players. Do we know if any more have (been) moved on, other than Tumkaya?
 
The club has announced no other departures as far as I've seen.

Seem to remember it was mentioned before that they don't confirm players have left until they've got another club - file it under one of the outdated communications policies that they continue to enforce whilst being constantly surprised that people are frustrated by the lack of communication from the club.
 
2023/24 Squad - 31

Alfie Allen (Millwall)
Akwo Ayuk (Akhisarspor ?)
Jerome Binnom-Williams (Maidstone United)
Sean Bonnett-Johnson (Concord)
Craig Braham-Barrett (Tonbridge Angels)
Paul Chalobah (Leatherhead)
Michael Chambers (Billericay Town)
Adrian Clifton (Maidenhead United)
R'avan Constable (Hanwell Town)
Adam Dougui (QPR)
Preston Edwards (Potters Bar)
Jerry Gyebi (Hungerford Town)
Kaya Hansson (Bromley)
Momodou Jallow (Tooting & Mitcham United)
Anthony Jeffrey (Billericay Town)
Kreshnic Krasniqi (retained)
Will Lakin (Peterborough)
Finlay Lovatt (Bromley)
Danny Mills (retained)
Sanchez Ming (retained)
Manny Parry (Welling United)
Richard Pingling (Haywards Heath Town)
Dwight Pascall (Kingstonian)
Mark Ricketts (Boreham Wood)
Elliot Romain (Ebbsfleet United)
Jack Ruddy (Cowdenbeath)
Miquel Scarlett (Eastbourne Borough)
Ryley Scott (Dagenham & Redbridge)
Ade Shokunbi (South Shields)
Hussein Siklawi (Tooting & Mitcham)
Luke Wanadio (Dover Athletic)

CONFIRMED DEPARTURES:
Cem Tumkaya (Cray Valley PM)
Marvel Ekpiteta (Hayes & Yeading)

Ming / Allen not seen in a squad since the Haringey games in early September. Shokunbi has made a few squads since but not come off the bench. Jeffrey assumed injured, which seems fairly predictable looking at his history.
 
Concerned that we’re going to be in a situation where we’re paying players NOT to play. Guessing the vast majority of these players, if not all of them are on contract. Fully aware that is a situation the club has to deal with but to have virtually a full match day squad sitting in the stands (hopefully they all turn up) seems daft.
 
Presumably we'd have to buy them out if we wanted to terminate their contract. With games switching to Tuesdays and poor performance likely to affect crowds it's all a bit worrying.
 
KPMG said:
Presumably we'd have to buy them out if we wanted to terminate their contract. With games switching to Tuesdays and poor performance likely to affect crowds it's all a bit worrying.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily as they can go out on loan or just move to other clubs. Quote a few are also non contract as well so can be released.
 
Photos from training last night on the club's social media - they don't clearly show all 22 players who were present, and maybe more importantly who wasn't, but looks like Allen and Jeffrey were both in attendance.

Also from Twitter, Kian was hoping to get time with Hayrettin last night to get a first team squad update, so hopefully they got the opportunity to do that.

 
TLDR: Lovett and Chalobah have left. R'avan Constable still coming back from a broken finger.

Would have been useful to have had an update on any further current injuries to players we have, otherwise we just assume there's 13-14 players not in contention each week.

Squad looks like this now (29 players)

Alfie Allen (Millwall)
Akwo Ayuk (Akhisarspor ?)
Jerome Binnom-Williams (Maidstone United)
Sean Bonnett-Johnson (Concord)
Craig Braham-Barrett (Tonbridge Angels)
Michael Chambers (Billericay Town)
Adrian Clifton (Maidenhead United)
R'avan Constable (Hanwell Town)
Adam Dougui (QPR)
Preston Edwards (Potters Bar)
Jerry Gyebi (Hungerford Town)
Kaya Hansson (Bromley)
Momodou Jallow (Tooting & Mitcham United)
Anthony Jeffrey (Billericay Town)
Kreshnic Krasniqi (retained)
Will Lakin (Peterborough)
Danny Mills (retained)
Sanchez Ming (retained)
Manny Parry (Welling United)
Richard Pingling (Haywards Heath Town)
Dwight Pascall (Kingstonian)
Mark Ricketts (Boreham Wood)
Elliot Romain (Ebbsfleet United)
Jack Ruddy (Cowdenbeath)
Miquel Scarlett (Eastbourne Borough)
Ryley Scott (Dagenham & Redbridge)
Ade Shokunbi (South Shields)
Hussein Siklawi (Tooting & Mitcham)
Luke Wanadio (Dover Athletic)

CONFIRMED DEPARTURES:
Cem Tumkaya (Cray Valley PM)
Marvel Ekpiteta (Hayes & Yeading)
Paul Chalobah (Leatherhead)
Finlay Lovatt (Bromley)
 
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