Manager/Coach Des Buckingham

I'm getting really fed up with these constant references about injured players.
Even Des has started to use it as an excuse.
After each game now it's " wait until I have all the players available".
Apart from the fact some of these players have had long term injuries and will take time to become match fit.
Every club every season will be affected by injuries, suspensions, fatigue and loss of form.
It's then up to the head coach to minimize the effect these situations have on the team.
That should include a plan B, including change of formation, change of set up, change in tactics.
Maybe setting up more defensively to make it harder for teams to get at us.
As many posts have eluded to there doesn't seem to be plan or a tactical approach to how we want to play.
Things seem to change from game to game.
Firstly we had the passing along the back line.
Because we were too slow in our passing the opposition pressed and forced us to make errors.
I just couldn't understand what the tactics were supposed to be in the second half on Saturday.
The last time I saw aimless punting of the ball forward and losing possession, I was at the local village rec.
Whilst I think the majority of us would like Des to succeed I think we need to start seeing a plan and an upturn in results.
I also think we need to see him start to show the attributes that will help him to take us forward.
 
RyanioBirdio said:
My main concern about Des is that he’s still not looking the part. I would really like to take him shopping and get to grips with his skincare routine. Give me one afternoon with him at Bicester Village and nobody would believe the difference.
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Email Tim. Ask him if you can take him shopping during the Leyton Orient game. Tim will get to add another matchday activation, and can then laugh at this forum when it goes into meltdown.
"Where WAS Des, didn't SEE him on the bench ONCE all game. No PASHUN."
 
East Stand Fan said:
Agree. Des didn’t learn from the Pompey game either - they kept finding that gaping hole between our midfield and strikers allowing them to form build-up play and Reading replicated that today albeit not as quickly or effectively. Cam and McGuane sit too deep and we really could do with Browne right now just to add pace and a presence. We have no press and the centre midfield is a wide open area which teams can play into with ease and comfort from the back.

Des also failed to deal with their triple change which turned the final 20 minutes on its head. Suddenly they looked dangerous and it completely threw what little game plan we had going. We just persisted with whatever we were trying to do. Burey should not have been taken off either and Smyth probably should’ve come on for Rodrigues.
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Sadly Smyth was injured ..
 
Joey said:
This is the jist of what I said below last week.

As you say, Routledge has been gone since late November/early December. His replacement was all agreed and was ready to be on the bench last year but Tim never sorted it (Des did most the chasing himself) and now won't be starting until this week. This is troubling on a few fronts.

1) The complete lack of urgency to get some help for Buckingham, despite having someone qualified and ready to go well over a month ago.

2) The fact it was left to the manager to sort out, at a time when we had loads of injuries, games coming thick and fast and we hadn't sorted out any other backroom staff for him (in particular, see assistant manager)

3) No mention at all that a senior member of staff has left. As of 5:30pm on Sunday 4th Feb his name is on the club website so unless you knew about it you'd not even have any suspicion that we're a staff member down.

In all scenarios, the obvious question if you've got an open mind is "if that's the case, what else is happening?" Buckingham having to chase up senior management to appoint staff who want to come here is bad enough, what's to say that wasn't the case with an assistant as well, or any of the other staff Ryan mentioned? Put that together with the two month search for an assistant and it all fits with a board who are out of their depth, not working hard enough or both. Regarding them not mentioning anything about outgoing staff, unfortunately incompetence is the best case scenario here. Just as likely is that they know it won't be well received so won't bother telling us, either because they don't want the hassle or they simply have too much contempt for us. How's planning permission for the new stadium going, that's crucial to our very existence? Still looking at being submitted November 2023? Or is there actually a chance it won't be ready and maybe we might have to groundshare? Was that announced at a forum, website update or an open letter to fans? Nah, just mention it offhand in an Athletic article and see if the plebs pick up on it.

I took some stick for suggesting we'd offered people paycuts to join as assistant and didn't want to say too much more. To be fair I don't expect to put some pretty outrageous claims on and be believed just like that, even with the context of the Hackett is-he-isnt-he fiasco in the background. That said, if the other part of my quoted post turns out to be true then I'd hope those posters will also have an open enough mind to consider the rest of it might be as well. I won't say who but it was the same person who told me all this information at the same time and was pretty astounded themselves. I don't see it as particularly likely they'd have said something so specific and then completely fabricated the rest.

Buckingham has ultimately been set up to fail by the cowboys in charge. Comparisons with Manning aren't fair, even if we were second or third when he left most can see we were slightly fortunate to be there, were scoring more than our play would suggest, had few injuries and avoided playing a lot of the top teams. More importantly though he was allowed to arrive mob handed with a trusted assistant, analyst and coaches so he could stamp his authority on it. I don't like the story at all of how he allegedly treated Wayne Brown but he was able to be ruthless and give himself some authority. Buckingham has come highly regarded but relatively unknown and walked into a bit of a old boys club with Short's stock very high and was given no back up at all. Not a dig at Short or any of the staff we have currently but it's basically Des stick, combined with a pretty crap set of circumstances he was in a hiding to nothing. Unfortunately I already think he's got an uphill battle on his hands to gain the full trust and respect of the team and if he does fail he'll have a black mark against his name when it should be at least as much on his bosses.

Tim and Grant were weak when allowing Robinson to decimate the club from the inside and then stay so long, wish washy with Manning's contract and downright incompetent throughout the entirety of Buckingham's reign so far, all with a nice undercurrent of arrogance whilst the stadium project that will keep us alive quietly runs into problems out of sight. They're very dangerous people to have running the club.
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Hi Joey

You're spot on - they're not good people to be " running our club ". We are powerless.
 
Joey said:
Was that wildly different to the defeats against Cambridge and Wigan under Manning? I'd suggest not, the squad we have struggled against those sort of teams regardless of manager. Not giving Des a free pass here but that wasn't completely against what we'd seen before this season.
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That was earlier in the season. By the time Des came in, the squad was established and 3pts off the top with a a game in hand. Sure we had some iffy early performances under Manning but that was soon nipped in the bud with wins against the likes of Derby and Barnsley. With Des, we haven’t continued where Liam left off and have experienced a string of torrid results home and away against a range of teams.

Manning addressed poor performances and results where we’d bounce back immediately whereas now we seem to be going from bad to worse and there’s no sign of a turnaround.
 
East Stand Fan said:
That was earlier in the season. By the time Des came in, the squad was established and 3pts off the top with a a game in hand. Sure we had some iffy early performances under Manning but that was soon nipped in the bud with wins against the likes of Derby and Barnsley. With Des, we haven’t continued where Liam left off and have experienced a string of torrid results home and away against a range of teams.

Manning addressed poor performances and results where we’d bounce back immediately whereas now we seem to be going from bad to worse and there’s no sign of a turnaround.
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Derby and Barnsley were early in the season too, both well before Wigan, so should we not count them either?

It's going over old ground but I feel, and thought at the time, we were very fortunate to be in third. We never created many and relied on plenty of screamers to win games, they all count but it's not sustainable and was always likely to drop off and our performances were pretty poor by the time Manning and Hogg were on their way out, then the injuries picked up after. A dropoff was always inevitable and it's not rewriting history to say that. Manning did an ok job to keep us up and then had us performing above our level to be that high but I don't think it would have continued. See his performance second season at MK Dons and so far at Bristol City, he's not a magician. Plenty of our best early season performances were based on quick counter attacks but Buckingham has barely had that option as all the wingers have been injured while he's here, we've looked better since Burey came in so we at least have some outlet. I also felt we caught both Derby and Barnsley at good times, Derby had already lost their two home games to Wigan and Blackpool in the cup when we played them and Barnsley were off getting battered by Peterborough and being knocked out of the cup at home to Tranmere, we also avoided Pompey, Peterborough and Bolton who have a good shot at being the top 3. It's sounds as if I've been very critical of Manning but I'm just trying to add context, I thought we had a lot of things go out way that were slipping or gone as he left hence why a regression was always likely even if he'd stayed.

I've said it before but this isn't to completely diminish the job Manning did, he did well overall to stabilise us and get us back on track from the crap he was left before but the squad was still incredibly thin and once it starts cracking the problems multiply quickly. If we'd had either of our first choice right backs or maybe even out third choice in Smyth we'd probably have won on Saturday and half of these questions wouldn't be here (although to be fair I thought Smyth was dreadful there against Pompey).

Equally, it's not to excuse the performances under Buckingham. For everything I've said about Manning we looked incredibly well drilled. I thought we were too cautious a lot of the time but you could absolutely see we had a plan and everyone knew their role. Defensively we were very solid and our press was brilliant, everyone knew what they were doing and when. Currently Harris and Rodrigues start it, no one follows up and they get played round easy as anything and nothing changes all games, it's utterly shambolic. Injuries are hurting us, especially going forwards, but there is no reason that the players we can get out there shouldn't know their roles and at the moment it doesn't look like they do.

It's worrying and I think he'll struggle to turn it round (a large part of the blame goes to Tim and Grant here too for the complete lack of support) but I'll argue til I'm blue in the face that saying we were third under Manning is hugely simplistic. Remember Manning also had back up in the form of his own assistant, analyst and coach. Buckingham has had none of that.
 
Wandering Yellow said:
Des hasn't had it easy with injuries, I don't think anyone is arguing that he has. I also think the club hasn't got the support around him that he needs. I've acknowledged that in several posts.

However, the results speak for themselves, as do the performances. If you're not at least having doubts that it's the wrong appointment I find that hard to fathom.
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I sort of think you have answered your own question.

Once we get to a situation where Des has a much improved injury situation and more support from the board, we can then assess more fairly how things are panning out.

What we don’t have, and never will have, is a comparison between Liam before he left and the Liam we would have had, had he stuck around to deal with a similar injury list and a loss of support staff.

In the same way that you are not arguing about all of these issues, no one is arguing that the start hasn’t been great, but at the moment it seems we are not comparing like for like.

Throw into the mix the complete upheaval of moving back to the U.K and the acknowledgment that he is on a steep learning curve at this level, we have to make allowances.

Frustrating yes, but are we yet at a point to assess him so early on in his tenure? absolutely not.

The club have made a brave call in bringing in someone so young and lacking in experience, but I am not sure any of us are able to say with conviction that in the long term it is right or wrong. Jury is still out.

But rest assured in the fullness of time we will have those that say I told you so or those that will hold their hands up and say they were wrong and it’s actually turned out ok.

In the meantime, he gets my backing.
 
RyanioBirdio said:
It isn’t just the assistant and analyst situation that Buckingham has had to put up with. Harry Routledge has been gone as HoP for a while and I believe his replacement has either just started in the last few days, or is about to start any day now. That has been dragging on for many weeks yet nobody has said a word on it. There have also been exits on the admin side including some very loyal and long serving members of staff, with more to come before the season is out.

The club is a complete shambles at the moment.
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@RyanioBirdio , sorry I’m not fully up to speed with the staff at the club, so what does HoP position mean.

Also, are you able to eloborate which admin staff have left and who’s leaving soon? And I thought the analyst started weeks ago?

I’d heard that Mick Brown and Niall McWilliams are surplus to requirements or words to that effect, but not sure if I heard correctly?
 
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uptheus said:
Ryan, sorry I’m not up to speed with the staff at the club, so what does HoP position mean.

Also, are you able to eloborate which adning staff have left and who’s leaving soon?

I’d heard that Mick Brown and Niall McWilliams are surplus to requirements or words to that effect, but not sure if I heard correctly?
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Head of Performance
 
Joey said:
If we'd had either of our first choice right backs or maybe even out third choice in Smyth we'd probably have won on Saturday
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I agree with pretty much your entire post, but just wanted to note that Negru was crucial to the build-up of our own goal, so he probably affected the result neutrally overall.
 
If the board are so concerned about cost cutting and revenue, it was a transfer window in a season we can't go down, so why didn't they cash in on Tyler and Cam? And saving a Bob on a few members of staff is nothing compared to the 15M (allegedly quoted by Manning) spent designing The Triangle proposal. And why invest in more injurred players if cost concerns them so much. Decision making and strategy seems inconsistent.
 
oxfordkits said:
I really want Des to succeed, and understand the concerns raised about a lack of a clear plan and playing as a cohesive unit.

Let's be honest, when Manning was still here, I doubt many of us really believed the league table with Oxford in second was a true reflection. Results were patchy and had that feeling of one step forward (Derby, Barnsley) and one step back (Cambridge, Port Vale, MKD, Wigan). I suspect many of us suspected things would settle down and the bigger clubs would nudge their way past us.

Whilst Manning was here, the only significant injury was Browne. Right now, we have 11 first-teamers out, plus lost Beadle and Mills.

To say Des must go is for the birds. Firstly, it would be wholly unfair on him considering the hand he has been dealt (injuries, lack of backroom team, confusion with the board). And secondly, the money spent on bringing him here, and the inaction from the board regarding KR's dismissal, demonstrates we have to accept Des Buckingham is here for the long haul.

I would go further and say, we are nowhere near ready for promotion. We'd come tumbling straight back down. (Shef Wed, Blackpool). We need to build a squad and an identity for the long-term, right now, the club is not ready for the Championship.

Yes, this season does feel like a great opportunity being missed. But blaming Des Buckingham is not right, nor fair. Look how weak our bench was on Tuesday, we really are down to the bare bones.

So my questions are...
  • Why are we suffering so many injuries?
    Is our squad size limiting the chance of rotation causing us to 'overplay' our players?
    Why do we sign so many 'fragile' players    ?

  • Why has the board not appointed a proper Assistant Manager?

  • What on earth is going on with the Analyst position?

  • Does an OUFC manager have any say in recruitment? or is this solely the fiefdom of Ed Waldron?
Personally, I have written off this season. We ain't going to get promoted, and we certainly are not ready for promotion either. Top 30 club? Not a chance with our current senior execs.
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Great post. 'Nowhere ready for promotion' sums it up. We're a reasonable side but to expect a jump from 19th last season to even 6th this season was always going to be a big one especially with the dumpster fire that KR left here.

Since posts are getting long and are making the same points, I'll aim to be brief.

On injuries, Karl Robinson's awful 2022 is still looming over us. There is so much money tied up in Murphy, Henry, Browne and Bodin who just don't contribute enough. They will be all be gone in the summer. That should free up some wages that can be better spent and spread out elsewhere. How we choose to spend it is another thing although the Waldron-led recruitment so far has appeared more promising. It's hard to pinpoint an exact answer on the others - some just more injury prone than others (Edwards), some through volume of football in recent years (Long), some just unlucky (Mills, Cumming)?

Regarding an Assistant Manager, my guess is that DB had an idea for who he wanted, contact was made but they/he decided to stay put. The advert was put out but DB wasn't happy with the shortlist. Hackett was always going to be promoted to the first team committee anyway and TW saw that as a chance to say the position was filled. I suspect DB went along with that yet still wants an Assistant Manager and feels he can get by with what he has for now.

Finally on this, a minor observation. LM and Hogg used to share the touchline a lot and converse about the game. DB doesn't have that and Short only twice went to him to offer his view. Maybe the existing backroom team need to be more visible rather than us hoping an Assistant Manager will 'solve' everything.
 
unification said:
Great post. 'Nowhere ready for promotion' sums it up. We're a reasonable side but to expect a jump from 19th last season to even 6th this season was always going to be a big one especially with the dumpster fire that KR left here.

Since posts are getting long and are making the same points, I'll aim to be brief.

On injuries, Karl Robinson's awful 2022 is still looming over us. There is so much money tied up in Murphy, Henry, Browne and Bodin who just don't contribute enough. They will be all be gone in the summer. That should free up some wages that can be better spent and spread out elsewhere. How we choose to spend it is another thing although the Waldron-led recruitment so far has appeared more promising. It's hard to pinpoint an exact answer on the others - some just more injury prone than others (Edwards), some through volume of football in recent years (Long), some just unlucky (Mills, Cumming)?

Regarding an Assistant Manager, my guess is that DB had an idea for who he wanted, contact was made but they/he decided to stay put. The advert was put out but DB wasn't happy with the shortlist. Hackett was always going to be promoted to the first team committee anyway and TW saw that as a chance to say the position was filled. I suspect DB went along with that yet still wants an Assistant Manager and feels he can get by with what he has for now.

Finally on this, a minor observation. LM and Hogg used to share the touchline a lot and converse about the game. DB doesn't have that and Short only twice went to him to offer his view. Maybe the existing backroom team need to be more visible rather than us hoping an Assistant Manager will 'solve' everything.
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Then why does the club talk about getting promotion this season, and spending money in its pursuit of this, this season?

By the way, I agree with what you’ve written, especially the bit about Des being out there on the touch line on his own for the majority of the match.

But Des does need to step up and show his authority and show the players respect him. He reminds me when Tim Henman used to punch the air at Wimbledon, it that it felt like a damp squib/rather limp, and it just should no passion or belief, unlike when Nadal or Djokovic do it or even Klopp. Having said that, Manning was shite at it too, but I guess the jury’s still out on him too.
 
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unification said:
Finally on this, a minor observation. LM and Hogg used to share the touchline a lot and converse about the game. DB doesn't have that and Short only twice went to him to offer his view. Maybe the existing backroom team need to be more visible rather than us hoping an Assistant Manager will 'solve' everything.
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