Manager/Coach Des Buckingham

DesB is not up to the job.

I am annoyed that he hasn’t been given a chance with his own back room team. Especially as he’s an Oxford lad but we shouldn’t be letting sentiment cloud judgement. It was always going to be a difficult given how well Manning had done. But last night was terrible on so many levels. Not just last night really we’ve been on a steady decline ever since he took over.

From a scouting and analyst point of view we turned up like a Sunday league team. We gave their midfield time and space to play we were narrow allowing them to exploit the width. Everyone knew they’ve got great wide players and Sheehan must not be allowed to dictate but we did exactly the opposite.

Half arsed press just wasting energy and eliminating 2 or 3 of our outfield players. within minutes it was obvious it wasn’t working and we should’ve held a mid block. Reducing the space in midfield.

Work rate is so poor, players were busting a gut to get back behind the ball under manning, those same players are walking or jogging now. We are so disorganised and our shape is all over the place, we sometimes look like a pub team.

Players who were beginning to bloom under Manning are shadows of what we know they’re capable of, McGuane Leigh, Rodrigues Brown.

Looking back to the games Manning managed he had almost exactly the same players one could say DesB has better players now.
The excuses are exhausted. injury list, players are back but not yet match fit. Well now what? His interview after the game! He looks lost and in trouble. His eyes were bloodshot and it’s not fair to heap this much pressure on anyone. He needs help from the club and fast.

Looking at Bolton and their squad we are absolutely miles away. If we did make the playoffs we’d have little chance of going up and even less chance of staying in the championship. Scrub it off and start building for next season. We need a boost quickly otherwise we’ll lose some of our key players in the summer and it’ll be even more difficult next season.
 
Buckingham won’t be sacked this season. Period. A half-eaten pork sausage has more chance of making the right decision than our vacant board.
DB seems like a nice chap, but he’s in the wrong job. Ironically he’d probably manage a premier league team better than us; he seems to have little understanding of what is required to motivate and get this level of player (average League One) performing.
He will continue here as we slip to 10/12th place. He will be given a budget but not as large as we all hope for and expect. We will continue to spend it on half-fit reasonable players (Cheltenham are laughing at us regarding the Goodwin saga, believe me).
Ten games into the new season we will be mid table and the noises from the vacancies will be “we’re doing OK”.
Buckingham will remain in post.
 
TailsWeWin said:
Buckingham won’t be sacked this season. Period. A half-eaten pork sausage has more chance of making the right decision than our vacant board.
DB seems like a nice chap, but he’s in the wrong job. Ironically he’d probably manage a premier league team better than us; he seems to have little understanding of what is required to motivate and get this level of player (average League One) performing.
He will continue here as we slip to 10/12th place. He will be given a budget but not as large as we all hope for and expect. We will continue to spend it on half-fit reasonable players (Cheltenham are laughing at us regarding the Goodwin saga, believe me).
Ten games into the new season we will be mid table and the noises from the vacancies will be “we’re doing OK”.
Buckingham will remain in post.
Click to expand...
"Period"!?

Mods! Ban!
 
TailsWeWin said:
Buckingham won’t be sacked this season. Period. A half-eaten pork sausage has more chance of making the right decision than our vacant board.
DB seems like a nice chap, but he’s in the wrong job. Ironically he’d probably manage a premier league team better than us; he seems to have little understanding of what is required to motivate and get this level of player (average League One) performing.
He will continue here as we slip to 10/12th place. He will be given a budget but not as large as we all hope for and expect. We will continue to spend it on half-fit reasonable players (Cheltenham are laughing at us regarding the Goodwin saga, believe me).
Ten games into the new season we will be mid table and the noises from the vacancies will be “we’re doing OK”.
Buckingham will remain in post.
Click to expand...

It would be extremely damaging for the club at a crucial time to retain Des.

Strong, swift and decisive leadership from the board is needed.
 
So, we might have paid compensation when we gave the job to Des. So what? Equally we’d have received compensation for both Manning & Hogg when BCFC poached them. We probably received more compensation than we paid out.

Reflecting on last night after a good sleep - we were playing a good team away from home and Bolton would clearly have been given an Evatt rollicking after recent poor performances. We used our best attacker on the night as a wing-back (Dale) and I think he defended better than any of the regular defenders.

But Bolton only had to slightly press us in the midfield or in our defensive area and we panicked and lost possession time and time again. Their midfield (particularly Sheehan) taught us a lesson in quick, accurate passing. Even their players’ body language was superior: Collins & Sheehan often pointing to where they wanted the ball. Our players’ body language was Brannagan cursing and swearing (and rightly getting booked for it following a foul) and others (MM, JM, and the 2 strikers) just turning their backs and not tracking back.

CB & MM were truly awful last night and made Bolton’s job easier.

I sort of understand the formation at the start as we were playing away against a usually good team. Des took too long to adjust things when we needed to. The midfielders didn’t bother adapting or closing down space. No-one kept the ball for long enough.

I would play Burey, Matete, & Negru & from the start on Saturday. Id have Woltman on the bench. I’d play Harris & Dale behind Burey as both put the work in. I’d have Matete replacing MM and if TG is fit play him and bench CB.

Lots of changes there but necessary after a 5-0 drubbing and other poor performances.

If we can limp through to the end of the season by staying in the top half, it’s essential we bring in an experienced assistant (a ‘been there and done it’ type) and replace both Short & Hackett. In the interim I’d have Faz on the bench advising Des.

Another couple of poor defeats I think we should cut our losses and bring in a new management team next month so they’re ready for next season by assessing the current crop, replacing everyone out of contract and bringing in hard-working players so we can grind out results and play as a team, not like the bunch of disinterested individuals who wore yellow last night.
 
TailsWeWin said:
Buckingham won’t be sacked this season. Period. A half-eaten pork sausage has more chance of making the right decision than our vacant board.
DB seems like a nice chap, but he’s in the wrong job. Ironically he’d probably manage a premier league team better than us; he seems to have little understanding of what is required to motivate and get this level of player (average League One) performing.
He will continue here as we slip to 10/12th place. He will be given a budget but not as large as we all hope for and expect. We will continue to spend it on half-fit reasonable players (Cheltenham are laughing at us regarding the Goodwin saga, believe me).
Ten games into the new season we will be mid table and the noises from the vacancies will be “we’re doing OK”.
Buckingham will remain in post.
Click to expand...

Will we be mid table under Buckingham next season?
 
I am a true forumite in the sense that I always look to blame Tim Williams if I can, but I’ve seen (and agreed with) a couple of posts saying that not a lot of this collapse can actually be blamed on the board:
- the LM contract situation was to avoid the club being tied into a long term deal if we went down
- ⁠Bringing in Des seemed a good idea based on the continuity factor and his consistent success elsewhere
- ⁠His preferred choice of assistant seemed to be practically here before he personally decided he didn’t want to, no fault of the board.

The posts I don’t agree with are the ones saying we weren’t any good under Manning. I think it’s a coping mechanism to try and soften the fact that Des has almost single-handedly taken us from the automatics to almost certain to miss out on playoffs. Blame injuries but it didn’t stop Bolton yesterday. Sure we were never going to keep hitting the same levels consistently whoever came in but the drop off has been astounding.
Oh how I long for the days when the biggest headache was whether we should’ve had five against Shrewsbury instead of three, rather than whether we can limit Bolton to just the five against us, when 8 of the starting XI were the same. It’s hard not to feel for Des when you see him interview, but my gosh does he need to get his act together.
 
If he had inherited a bad side I would have given him longer, but we have got drastically worse.
 
I think performance starts at the very top of the tree. Unfortunately for us, we have an SLT that have been under performing in their roles as stewards for the club for 2 years now.

I think Des would have a case to say that he has been hung out to dry to a certain extent. He wanted an assistant but the club failed to offer his preferred candidate terms that were to be deemed acceptable. That isn't on Des - that is his bosses responsibility to negotiate the contracts that will see deals get done.

He waited weeks and weeks for an analyst, before acquiring the chap from Arsenal, only to then realise he had an extended period of garden leave to go through. Again, that is not Des's fault.

The club knew that this was DB's first number 1 role in a Senior Management capacity in the UK. He has been tasked with cracking on with it all, despite not having a full suite of staff in place from the get go and without the day to day support of the Chairman who is roughly 10,000 miles and a different time zone away!

We had Buckingham fielding questions in the media in reference to Hackett becoming his assistant, all a result of Williams's poor attempt at 'communication'.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes there have been more and more staff departures and rumblings of discontent at how the club is being run at SLT level.

I am not making excuses for Buckingham but i do think there needs to be a level of criticism levelled at the SLT, as leadership of the club has been extremely poor.

On Des, i am so very keen for it to work for him. My concerns are that the fanbase have been lost and when that happens, it is very difficult to turn it around, especially when you don't have evidence of previous success in the league (or country) that you are being asked to perform in.

If i were him on Saturday, i'd be looking to make a statement with my selection. He needs to pick the players that he believes will be willing to run that bit harder for him. Get players in the side that that are willing to roll their sleeves up and work like buggery for the manager AND us!

It was clear last night that there were players that just didn't fancy it: RR, Brown, McGuane etc. Don't play them. Sit them out. It is high time that Des gets this group by the gonads and manages them with a bit more of an iron fist.

RR has no god given right to play in our side. He should feel privileged to be here after we plucked him out of non-league and gave him a platform to progress his career. Last night he was embarrassing. He had no fight, no desire to track runners and was absolutely dire on the ball. If he doesn't fancy it when the going isn't all on his terms and he has to earn the right, then Des needs to call him out (I sure will be at Vale on Saturday if he performs like he did last night!). He has been rubbish for months.

McGuane is far far to comfortable in this team. He is another that I'd be looking to leave out on Saturday.

I sincerely hope Des is given the summer to build his own squad of players, regardless of what some might have you believe, it isn't possible to overhaul a squad in January and the club have invested in him.
Unfortunately, it appears that some of the current group have not got the mental aptitude to adapt to different ideas and ways of working, and to a large extent that is as much about their characters as it is the Manager. I'd love to see a major overhaul in the playing group as soon as this season finishes. Meanwhile, also ensuring the Board act decisively to get the Manager his assistant that he really wants to work with.

I'd be looking to dispose of the following:

Eastwood
Brown
Long
McGuane
Bodin
Browne
Edwards
Murphy
Thorniley
Findlay
Seddon
McEachran
Henry

If we were to be offered £1,000,000+ for CB, i'd be happy to do that deal, too. His £12k a week can be put to better use on multiple players.
All of the existing loans can go back, too. Thanks but no thanks.

A number of those to go have had multiple opportunities to achieve here over the course of the last 2-4 years, or so. When it has really mattered, they haven't managed to get it done. With that in mind, i would be wishing them all the best and looking to start next year with fresh, hungry players that will buy into the methods of the manager and who understand what it means to represent our football club and those that spend their hard earned every week, up and down the country supporting them.

While most certainly writing off this season, I don't think all is lost with Buckingham if he is sufficiently supported in the close season. Unfortunately for him and the long suffering supporters, I'd wager that it is a big IF!
 
Don't blame the 18 wanting no change/disruption at the top but to fire up debate if nothing else I have voted out.
 
OX18 said:
At best
Click to expand...

Given he has taken us from second in a 17 game form table to 16th in a 21 game form table, while conceding more goals than any team other than bottom placed Carlisle I think mid table is hopeful.

I think we can all look for reasons why it has gone wrong, but the most glaring one might just be that Buckingham is not a very good football manager?
 
Yellow There! said:
I am a true forumite in the sense that I always look to blame Tim Williams if I can, but I’ve seen (and agreed with) a couple of posts saying that not a lot of this collapse can actually be blamed on the board:
- the LM contract situation was to avoid the club being tied into a long term deal if we went down
- ⁠Bringing in Des seemed a good idea based on the continuity factor and his consistent success elsewhere
- ⁠His preferred choice of assistant seemed to be practically here before he personally decided he didn’t want to, no fault of the board.

The posts I don’t agree with are the ones saying we weren’t any good under Manning. I think it’s a coping mechanism to try and soften the fact that Des has almost single-handedly taken us from the automatics to almost certain to miss out on playoffs. Blame injuries but it didn’t stop Bolton yesterday. Sure we were never going to keep hitting the same levels consistently whoever came in but the drop off has been astounding.
Oh how I long for the days when the biggest headache was whether we should’ve had five against Shrewsbury instead of three, rather than whether we can limit Bolton to just the five against us, when 8 of the starting XI were the same. It’s hard not to feel for Des when you see him interview, but my gosh does he need to get his act together.
Click to expand...

The debate has become rather simplified on here.

To me, we were good under Manning. Professional and clinical with a mix of the occasional dud performance, an excellent performance and a lucky one. The balance seemed there. However, his games were never particularly interesting or exciting nor likely to be sustainable across an entire season. We left games happy to have won but hardly riveted by the football (Shrewsbury 3-0 win at home came to mind where the fans around me in the SSL were moaning we didn't attack enough!). I suspect he would have hit a sticky patch in November and December with the injuries too.

Unpopular opinion time but the football under KR from 2019-22 was way more fun than Manning-ball was. That said, Manning yielded better and more consistent results, hence it was 'good' in that sense. If he'd stayed, I think we would have seen him strengthen more in January and we could have had a really good go at the playoffs.

As it is, the continuity candidate is struggling big time. A chunk of that comes from above since we brought in Manning and his setup which the incumbent didn't, some on the players and a whole load on Des.
 
unification said:
The debate has become rather simplified on here.

To me, we were good under Manning. Professional and clinical with a mix of the occasional dud performance, an excellent performance and a lucky one. The balance seemed there. However, his games were never particularly interesting or exciting nor likely to be sustainable across an entire season. We left games happy to have won but hardly riveted by the football (Shrewsbury 3-0 win at home came to mind where the fans around me in the SSL were moaning we didn't attack enough!). I suspect he would have hit a sticky patch in November and December with the injuries too.

Unpopular opinion time but the football under KR from 2019-22 was way more fun than Manning-ball was. That said, Manning yielded better and more consistent results, hence it was 'good' in that sense. If he'd stayed, I think we would have seen him strengthen more in January and we could have had a really good go at the playoffs.

As it is, the continuity candidate is struggling big time. A chunk of that comes from above since we brought in Manning and his setup which the incumbent didn't, some on the players and a whole load on Des.
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Both Manning and Robinson had personalities and a presence on the bench which also helped motivate players and they were far more clued tactically from the initial gameplay to making dynamic changes. Des just stands still, no emotion or passion and this is on top of seemingly clubbing some players together and hoping we concoct something on the fly. I did think we were lucky to be second with Manning but he could certainly get a result and put a decent side together. Robinson tried for years and often frustrated with his broken promises but the football was exciting and attractive. I think with Des were are teetering on some of the worst football we've seen for a very long time and this is more down to having decent players and not being able to do anything remotely with them when months previous, we were second. If we had a dire team then it would be understandable to reproduce bad football but to be given a team this good on a plate and balls it up the wall is just shocking really!
 
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If Buckinghamshire failure is entirely because he doesn’t have the support staff why don’t we sack Buckingham and put these near mythical support staff in charge? What do we need him for if he brings so little to the table?
 
tatabanya said:
We caught a glimpse of what the squad is capable of under Manning. Also, have a look at Stevenage's squad, or Lincoln's. Or any of the other 10 sides out-performing us on a fraction of the budget at the moment. Are their players better than ours? No chance. They're just well drilled.
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Yep, certainly on the surface of it. What makes a better player though?

Some people are better at being well drilled than others, and especially in consistently staying well drilled.

I think we have several terminally inconsistent performers.
 
Salaghaf said:
On paper Matete, Goodwin and Bennett should be starting every game. But sadly according to Des they are bench warmers at best, and look like headless chickens when they do get a chance.
We are a team of 11 headless chickens, it’s disgraceful the effect Des has had on our players, and in such a short amount of time too….. we can’t give him another transfer window.
I say replace now, and bring in someone with buckets of previous managerial experience until the end of the season. Then we’d still have a fighting chance of making the play offs.
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So you assume the owners and the board actually want promotion before we know the result of the stadium situation, I'm afraid I don't.
 
DannyW said:
So you assume the owners and the board actually want promotion before we know the result of the stadium situation, I'm afraid I don't.
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certainly think the start of this summer transfer window will be interesting, can’t see us being competitive for players before the big decision.

Unfortunately I can see a few one year extensions being handed out as it’s an east option, Edwards, Bodin etc will profit from our situation.
 
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