In a first-of-its-kind post, we’re sharing an open letter penned by a fan who has asked to retain their anonymity. Please enjoy and don’t forget to engage on social media!
So, Mr Irvine has been with the Fleet since Feb 2020. He’s now coming close to his 4 year anniversary, which is the longest period he has been at a Football club. In that time we have had a lot of highs and lows, but the big question is now; is it time for the CEO to go?
The recent “club” update from Damian seemed to be well received by some Ebbsfleet fans but I think others saw it as a massive desperate deflection tactic following a truly embarrassing defeat to Maidstone. And since the Maidstone game things have only got worse.
I am no financial expert and do not try to understand what is going on with the owners development plans. But from what I do read, the club appears to still be losing a lot of money, and it does beg the question what will happen to the club and its ownership when the housing development is complete? Is the club simply being used as a pawn for the owners to make money? And what would happen if the development collapses? Many people think the club might simply become a inconvenience.
Damian is great at the PR side of the role and seems to keep a lot of people on side by being open and speaking to the fans. But would anyone really be upset if we had a CEO that we never saw if the results and club started going in the right direction? It’s a question of fan management over football results.
The club statement appeared to place a lot of the blame on Danny and others that have since left the club. Damian himself appeared to not accept any of the blame, Harry also spent the 1st month of his time at the club subtly blaming Danny and using the pre-season and the lack of player fitness as the sole reason the club was in this dire position. We then had the 2 weeks break – with what felt like daily updates on how much running and training the players were doing… just for the players to then return and put in a mediocre performance against Tamworth followed by the recent abomination of a performance against Solihull.
Harry’s league record at the time of writing is:
Played 10 – Won 1 Draws 3 Defeats 6
There are 28 games (84 points) still to play for, following the 6-0 defeat. Is the fact Harry was not dismissed immediately just another sign of Damian’s stubbornness and reluctance to admit that his choice again has been the complete incorrect decision? I fully understand that you will not get anywhere if you are changing manager every 2 months, but you do not need to be a high paid CEO or have a football degree to see that Harry was completely the wrong manager at the wrong time.
So, what next? My opinion is that if the club owners are still invested in the club and do not just see us as a small pawn in a big developmental game of chess should step in and remove Damian and Harry from the club at the earliest opportunity. The developmental side of things should then be handed to someone separately who has no input or involvement at the club and a new experienced manager and dedicated director of football be brought in.
