Manager/Coach Des Buckingham

Jster said:
Appleton's record after 19 games - 5 wins, 6 draws, 8 losses. That's one point less than Des, I wasn't here then, but out of interest, what was the mood here re Appleton at that stage?
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Very similar indeed, many calling for him to be sacked in particular because there was no Plan B to......guess what......retaining possession at the back for long periods of the game.
 
Jster said:
Appleton's record after 19 games - 5 wins, 6 draws, 8 losses. That's one point less than Des, I wasn't here then, but out of interest, what was the mood here re Appleton at that stage?
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Appleton had a playing career and previous managerial jobs so served an apprenticeship that gave him the knowledge to turn things around here. (It's since transpired Appleton isn't a very good manager).

Buckingham hasn't that experience to call on to turn things around after not having a playing career and only coaching at age group levels and in footballing backwaters.
 
Reynolds97 said:
Sorry but anyone still backing Des is just kidding themselves - The players do not respect him one bit & Majority of fans are bored to death of watching. Wont be wasting anymore money / time watching that rubbish. Never felt so disconnected with Oxford.
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Will get accused of not being a true fan but I think Saturday was it for me this season. These days it's a financial hit coming to games for me and it just leaves me angry and annoyed. I'm an Oxford fan, I'm cool with not winning, but the performances under Des have been an utter joke. We have very good players.

Breaks my heart because I really believed this could have been a special season.
 
Wallop said:
Very similar indeed, many calling for him to be sacked in particular because there was no Plan B to......guess what......retaining possession at the back for long periods of the game.
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Appleton came in very late, inherited a squad that was conference bound and scrambled in a load of loanees to make up the numbers. Des inherited a team 2nd in the league and strengthened in January including a £400k signing. As others have said Appleton adapted and at no stage did we look as rudderless as we do now - not that I can remember anyway.
 
I was one of the few that supported Robinson too long but, des inherited a winning side and now we win very few. Very few injuries now, not many players apart from Murphy playing well. I'd actually bring a short term experienced manager in if one is available. It also depends on cost I suppose.
There is very little chance we'll get promoted but a new appointment may create some excitement.
 
The damning thing for Des is the form table. Last 6 we are 16th in form table (when Des has got an acceptable squad to choose from) and 18th in the last 10. This takes in a few games where we had limited options but still shows you he’s taken us from automatic promotion form to low end of the bottom half form. Quite a difference! Same players plus money spent on strengthening the squad.

I hope he can deliver a win against Pompey or Bolton away. If he can, the belief will start to come back but with us fans but really can’t see it with his tactics, decision making, touchline presence and motivational ability. I really really hope I’m wrong as he’s a nice guy but maybe too nice? Would be really interesting to know what the players think of his training methods.
 
I posted the below post under the Orient match thread, but felt it was probably better under this one;

I really would love it to work out for Des, but he does remind me of a Tim Henman type when comparing him to the likes of Djorkovic or Nadal types!! e.g. when he used to punch the air it looked like a wet/limp fish on a Friday afternoon in the first week at Wimbledon!! Having said that Manning was just as wet/limp!

Do we still have that psychotherapy guy at the club? Just asking as the players look scared so inevitably are making poor decisions/actions, but I don’t get the feeling that Des would be instilling that fear so not sure where it’s coming from unless it’s purely down to confidence. If it’s the latter then we (fans) need to really get behind the players, team and management to help. We’ve got to be as one, but without Tim!!

I’d also like to see the other coaching staff engaging/behind Des at games rather than him stood out there as a line figure.
 
Come on it's not DB giving the ball away getting pushed of the ball far to easily not running back , it could be the players just aren't good enough !!!
Remember last home game last season under LM some of those players are still in the squad give him a chance let's get the dead wood out then see how it pans out.
 
sadoldsod1778 said:
Come on it's not DB giving the ball away getting pushed of the ball far to easily not running back , it could be the players just aren't good enough !!!
Remember last home game last season under LM some of those players are still in the squad give him a chance let's get the dead wood out then see how it pans out.
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Depends what you regard as dead wood, this is a very good squad already.
 
uptheus said:
I’d also like to see the other coaching staff engaging/behind Des at games rather than him stood out there as a line figure.
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As we know, Des doesn’t see the need for a midfield.
It’s the same in the technical area, he keeps his coaching staff at a distance.
 
Davox said:
The damning thing for Des is the form table. Last 6 we are 16th in form table (when Des has got an acceptable squad to choose from) and 18th in the last 10. This takes in a few games where we had limited options but still shows you he’s taken us from automatic promotion form to low end of the bottom half form. Quite a difference! Same players plus money spent on strengthening the squad.

I hope he can deliver a win against Pompey or Bolton away. If he can, the belief will start to come back but with us fans but really can’t see it with his tactics, decision making, touchline presence and motivational ability. I really really hope I’m wrong as he’s a nice guy but maybe too nice? Would be really interesting to know what the players think of his training methods.
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Quite.

Although I’m reserving the ‘nice guy’ stuff as well because you just don’t know. You really don’t - interviews tell us nothing. I think that’s an understated benefit of a proper assistant. The benefits don’t stop at new tactical ideas, they’re also a sanity check for managers and someone who could say ‘you’re being a bit of a d*ck here, this isn’t going to get you anywhere’. A united front with players but a back hander behind closed doors. Everybody needs that from time to time where as Des is answerable only to himself.

I’m sure he’s no Robinson, but the board have engineered a similar situation where if he were, there’s no safeguarding in place yet again. It beggars belief. Especially when they had the recipe for success right under their nose, to see us revert back to the model that completely derailed the football club is baffling.

Here’s hoping he is a decent bloke or at least someone with common sense and the ability to build relationships but the team performances suggest a lot of the key ingredients are missing and with there being nobody else to point the finger at, there’s no hiding place for him.
 
Im still saying give him till the summer. Under Mapp there were very clear signs from about early march of the 1st season that we were on the up.

I wouldn’t grant him a whole transfer window I’m afraid. There needs to be some real signs of where we are going. He doesn’t have long.
 
Gregortheox said:
Im still saying give him till the summer. Under Mapp there were very clear signs from about early march of the 1st season that we were on the up.

I wouldn’t grant him a whole transfer window I’m afraid. There needs to be some real signs of where we are going. He doesn’t have long.
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The one thing that surprised me in his his post match interview yesterday was when he said we have only seen how he wants to play in patches.

It seems like he doesn’t want to make too many drastic changes to the team too soon but after 20 games I’d expect us to see it more times than not. Yesterday’s goal was a Des style goal, get the ball out wide, cross it in and score. We need to see that more.

Is he being too cautious because of us being in the play off places and not wanting to blow it? Maybe but by doing so could lead us to missing out.
 
Swaby39 said:
Quite.

Although I’m reserving the ‘nice guy’ stuff as well because you just don’t know. You really don’t - interviews tell us nothing. I think that’s an understated benefit of a proper assistant. The benefits don’t stop at new tactical ideas, they’re also a sanity check for managers and someone who could say ‘you’re being a bit of a d*ck here, this isn’t going to get you anywhere’. A united front with players but a back hander behind closed doors. Everybody needs that from time to time where as Des is answerable only to himself.

I’m sure he’s no Robinson, but the board have engineered a similar situation where if he were, there’s no safeguarding in place yet again. It beggars belief. Especially when they had the recipe for success right under their nose, to see us revert back to the model that completely derailed the football club is baffling.

Here’s hoping he is a decent bloke or at least someone with common sense and the ability to build relationships but the team performances suggest a lot of the key ingredients are missing and with there being nobody else to point the finger at, there’s no hiding place for him.
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It's also pretty incredible that they've put themselves back in this situation and they couldn't forsee how things would pan out.

They need to either sack him and confirm to everyone (including their bosses) that they made a very expensive mistake. Or they need to back him and get him the staff they failed to get him going on four months ago now (which again would involve acknowledging a mistake). This obviously risks weighing the club down with further expense should it turn out they don't want to keep Des.

I have a horrible feeling that they'll just do what they've always done... and do nothing. Apart from leaving Buckingham to be the face of all of it, of course.
 
LowerSouth said:
As we know, Des doesn’t see the need for a midfield.
It’s the same in the technical area, he keeps his coaching staff at a distance.
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New rules mean that only one member of the coaching/ management team are allowed in the technical area at any time so that's not quite correct.
 
Osei Yaw said:
It's also pretty incredible that they've put themselves back in this situation and they couldn't forsee how things would pan out.

They need to either sack him and confirm to everyone (including their bosses) that they made a very expensive mistake. Or they need to back him and get him the staff they failed to get him going on four months ago now (which again would involve acknowledging a mistake). This obviously risks weighing the club down with further expense should it turn out they don't want to keep Des.

I have a horrible feeling that they'll just do what they've always done... and do nothing. Apart from leaving Buckingham to be the face of all of it, of course.
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They were blessed that Manning was not only prepared to do that but also highly effective at it. All the more hilarious that I’m doing so he was thrust in to the shop window and they rather pathetically cried foul that this bloke that they’d put out there to market the club had actually also managed to market himself quite well and attract a bigger fish so quickly.

Manning took all the highs and lows in his stride and faced the music of the relegation battle and the promotion pressure that mounted in an almost inch perfect way. He deflected virtually all attention away from the club’s problems that he would’ve known were there and redirected it in to what was shaping up to be a very effective football team. He fronted up virtually anything he was asked but did so while keeping an incredibly committed group - nobody was downing tools on Manning for making Josh Murphy an absolute last resort and Sonny Perkins invisible. They understood and respected the regime and that smacked you in the face every time you watched the team - it was almost military organisation.

They were absolutely blessed to have him and failure to recognise that and tie down their long term futures - at least long enough to see how we could’ve done this season - will go down as one of Tim Williams’ biggest failings at the club to those with only an outsider perspective (I.e. not a fly on the wall to witness what I’m sure are worse things).
 
Swaby39 said:
They were blessed that Manning was not only prepared to do that but also highly effective at it. All the more hilarious that I’m doing so he was thrust in to the shop window and they rather pathetically cried foul that this bloke that they’d put out there to market the club had actually also managed to market himself quite well and attract a bigger fish so quickly.

Manning took all the highs and lows in his stride and faced the music of the relegation battle and the promotion pressure that mounted in an almost inch perfect way. He deflected virtually all attention away from the club’s problems that he would’ve known were there and redirected it in to what was shaping up to be a very effective football team. He fronted up virtually anything he was asked but did so while keeping an incredibly committed group - nobody was downing tools on Manning for making Josh Murphy an absolute last resort and Sonny Perkins invisible. They understood and respected the regime and that smacked you in the face every time you watched the team - it was almost military organisation.

They were absolutely blessed to have him and failure to recognise that and tie down their long term futures - at least long enough to see how we could’ve done this season - will go down as one of Tim Williams’ biggest failings at the club to those with only an outsider perspective (I.e. not a fly on the wall to witness what I’m sure are worse things).
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Yep. Although Hogg also took on some of the media duties. He'd often say the same as Manning, but that only went to confirm how they were a team on the same page and that was reflected through the organisation on the pitch, as you've said.

The first half of Robinson's last 6 months saw constant criticism of Karl (even if it wasn't that hostile at games) but then there was a point where there was a noticeable shift of attention towards the senior leadership at the club. Most fans had made their mind up and they couldn't understand the delay in sacking him.

I've a feeling that we're going to be treading water for a while again before we see any action either way, and all Tim and Grant will do is put themselves back in the spotlight.
 
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