Senior management have handled everything appallingly on the footballing side since the start of last season. They allowed the insanity of Robinson to continue beyond the Summer of 2022. They did OK in appointing his replacement and the team he wanted around him, but then dropped a massive bollock by allowing him to walk away when the first club to flutter their eyelids flirted with him.
They then took a gamble on an inexperienced coach in Buckingham and then FAILED to back him with a team around him and experience to support him as he inevitably needed to learn on the job.
And just who is the sergeant major required to manage player discipline, which is clearly completely lacking.
Des is looking for all the world like the nice supply teacher and the whole class is taking the P**s, whilst the headteacher drools over plans for the new sports hall.
I could not agree more.
What should be beyond doubt by now is that Williams does not understand how to run the football side of a football club. Maybe he has something to offer on the financial side, but he's out of his depth with the on field stuff.
People are rightfully asking questions of the manager and players, but the tone for everything is set from higher up. The senior management have made serious errors with each of the 3 managers they've had in place, as you've outlined above. It's entirely possible that Buckingham isn't up to it, but he's also seen a lack of support.
Although it's true to say Manning had some success within the current structure, it isn't the same situation as we've had with Buckingham.
Manning arrived with Hogg as a non-negotiable and we did enough last season to stay up. It wasn't exactly fantastic football, but it was considerably more organised than what we'd been watching (although a low bar comparing to the end days of Robinson), but what would've helped enormously was having a right hand man to help set everything up from day 1. Hogg was clearly an important part of Manning's success, he even got referenced in Manning's first PowerPoint session.
Then Manning got to add Price and Krause over the summer and we went on to make a very good start to League 1 this season. When Manning won the August manager of the month award, he said “I actually think the title should change because it’s not just about one person." and the accompanying photo says a lot:
3 of the 4 alongside Manning there were his guys. He had pulled stuff together more over the summer, but he had been given a lot more resource than Buckingham had. The likelihood was that he was also a stronger character than Buckingham in insisting on what he needed, but that feels like another failure of Williams to just be dictated to. I'm of the opinion that Manning did well because he came in and told Williams what he needed and Williams went along with it, rather than Williams taking charge and leading like a CEO should.
If we now go on to pay Buckingham off, then I think we need to hope the next manager comes in with his own support and they're also ready to do the leg work themselves to get them in. Not only is this a risk, but it flies in the face of what a 'top 30' club should be.