Daggers Blog: Our Dagenham & Redbridge blogger Danny Collins wonders how big a miss Danny Green and Romain Vincelot will be for the Daggers

There’s a familiar feeling emanating from Victoria Road this week, a feeling Daggers fans have become accustomed to in recent years – the feeling of frustration as they watch their best players head off for pastures new.

The loss of Danny Green and Romain Vincelot is a tremendous blow for the Daggers. Although inconsistent, the quality shown by Green in attacking full backs and whipping the ball into the box was worthy of League One football.

Vincelot’s rise from French footballing obscurity, to the crux of the Daggers side was testament to his ambition and talent.

With a remarkable engine, intelligence and the uncanny knack of scoring headers for a relatively short midfielder, Vincelot will be the biggest loss to Dagenham.

Where Danny Green, despite all his talent, could occasionally go missing, Vincelot was an ever-present rock in the heart of midfield.

Central midfielders of real quality, as the Daggers learned with the loss of Thurgood before, are a huge loss to the team.

Waiting in the wings, so to speak, to take Green’s position is his promising namesake, DJ Green. A few telling forays down the wing at the end of last season showed sparks of the pace, trickery and energy that will be needed to replace his predecessor.

The loss of the Daggers’ two brightest talents is yet another example of the transfer system John Still has so successfully pioneered.

The club is in essence a shop window – the platform from which driven lower-league players can begin their ascent back up the leagues, and in doing so drive the Daggers to greater success.

Vincelot and Green are just the latest in a line of Dagenham players who now litter the Football League.

As has been proved time and time again, rarely has a player proved indispensible to the Daggers. Many left, and yet Dagenham still climbed into League One.

The same will prove true of the latest casualties. Despite their huge value, John Still’s remarkable track record of finding young, driven non-league players will provide the club with more than enough steel and firepower to secure a comfortable mid-table finish next season.

In fact, there has been only one critical error in the Daggers’ transfer dealing in recent years – the sale of Paul Benson. Sold at the very last opportunity, Benson undoubtedly would have provided those few, vital extra points over the course of a season, and certainly enough to stave of relegation.

His sale, with little chance to seek an adequate replacement, was a terminal move.

However, if John Still can coax the best out of his trusted Lieutenants, Tony Roberts, Peter Gain and Mark Arber, as well as adding some young talent to the squad, the Daggers will enjoy a comfortable season in League Two.

Give it time and the sore loss of Green and Vincelot will be forgotten.

You can follow me on twitter @dannycollins123