Manager/Coach Des Buckingham

Would it be worth putting Des and a few of the players on the "Too Good to Go" App for £3.99 or less?

I know people keep bringing up how much we paid for Des as a factor for sticking with him.... maybe this is a solution for all concerned ?
 
QR said:
If you can't see the bleeding obvious staring you straight in the face I can't help you.
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I can absolutely recognise that certain managers will get more out of certain players, just like Des with Murphy.

What I do find confusing is that almost none of the onus for players like McGuane and Rodrigues dropping off has come to the players themselves, like they’re not autonomous beings responsible for their own individual success. Not all of that comes down to the manager, nor should he be solely blamed for McGuane phoning it in.
 
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There is clearly something amiss in the team. I imagine that certain players under Robinson were effectively able to do as they wished, as there was a leadership vacuum in the entire club- with the exception of Robinson punishing players whose face didn't fit.

Manning got buy-in from those players - perhaps because of his better understanding of the mentality of league one players- and perhaps because he saved their bacon last season. I imagine for senior pros like Brannagan and McGuane the thought that they were going to find themselves in League 2 was a bit of a wake up call. In any case we can see that the mood is not brilliant at the moment

. Did anyone watch the training video posted on youtube?


I find that there is little leadership on the pitch. though Elliot Moore is the captain Brannagan clearly is the player who expects to lead- but he's not always the best judge of his abilities. for example he isn't the best corner taker in the squad and he might be better placed to pick the loose ball on the edge of the penalty area.

He's certainly a very gifted player but . i'm not quite sure what his role is, or what he wants it to be in the current team.

I don't think one can underestimate the difference between Beadle- who was both an excellent keeper and a confident presence- and Cumming who is not as good and doesn't have the confidence of the other players.
 
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Chippy said:
That’s true, but why when we had the chance in January didn’t we properly recruit and invest in the season, with the belief that the right signings could take us on the journey we started? As it is the January window, with opportunity beckoning, has been a shocker!!

Not sure who’s fault that is, but 400k on yet another croc, 2 loans who have managed barely a few games between them, the resigning of a player who was already badly injured with some mystery problem, and a GK miles off the loan signing we had previously, tells me something is massively wrong.

We are making huge losses, yet still keep increasing those losses with players who are not improving or adding to the first team one jot!!
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Good post. So much wrong at the club. Again! Top to bottom!

Owners,
non existent money men from far off lands. I’m on the fence because they’re obviously throwing money at us and the work on the new stadium is fantastic but I can’t help feeling the stadium, facilities and club will be separated and when they move on we’ll be no better off than we are now.

Senior managers
Also non existent but perhaps not as far removed as our owners. Some very odd stories banging about. Also key people jumping ship. blaming fans for the lack of atmosphere. Everyone knows off the field communication, organisation, structure and sound appointments combined with fantastic, exciting winning football on the pitch drives the atmosphere. Sounds like they wants us to watch paint dry and sing about it. Oh and in the dark too. They failed to secure manning when everything was going so well. They failed to get the right people in to back up DasB. And now we’re in a stick or twist position. Can DesB be backed fully in the summer given the mess we’re in on the pitch? But they can’t or will not sack him.

Recruitment
Absolutely terrible January window. Should be ashamed of their work.
Goodwin injured when signed
Edward’s injured when signed
Burey who knows
Matete injured, probably when signed never looked like the player he can be.
Dale has done well in a poor team
Cumming no better than Eastwood.
Bennett started well not sure what else to say.

First team manager,
You can bang on all you want about a false position under manning but I’d have put money on that continuing had he stayed. He had a group of players playing for each other and him. Organised, hard working, hard to beat and like any good manager getting the most out of what he has. DesB on the other hand has turned us into a disorganised, lacklustre, boring, bunch of individuals making mistakes for fun. Terrible , basic defensive errors, slow and open in midfield, mediocre down the flanks and can’t finish. Sliding down the form table. I’m seriously worried about next season. Anyone thinking about the playoffs needs their heads checked! We’re making hard work of teams in even worse form than us! Even the players we know are good from previous managers are looking poor.
Running out of excuses now DesB.

Ground staff
Cracking job as usual.

All in all a bit s**t.
 
dickwalton1964 said:
👏👏👏 Great post.

It’s so depressing the way it’s panned out. I wouldn’t say we were quite yet riding the crest of a wave under Manning but everything seemed so calm, clear and concise under him. His interviews, although a bit bland at times, were a welcome change from the hysterical ones we’d got accustomed to. The possession football we saw wasn’t something we’d seen before from Oxford but it was new, something different. He has been a huge loss to this club.
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Manning said a lot without really saying much. Never had an issue with his demeanour that I can remember. He preached a lot about emotional control and at least practiced that in how he interviewed. Boring, maybe, but he was animated enough during and after games to see he wasn’t like that 24/7.
 
battman said:
I can absolutely recognise that certain managers will get more out of certain players, just like Des with Murphy.

What I do find confusing that that almost none of the onus for players like McGuane and Rodrigues dropping off has come to the players themselves, like they’re not autonomous beings responsible for their own individual success. Not all of that comes down to the manager, nor should he be solely blamed for McGuane phoning it in.
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Don’t be fooled Murphy has pulled his finger out for one reason and one reason only. He needs a new contract. he either pushes us for an increase (look how good I am) or he has done enough to excite another team who’ll give him a nice contract and at the first hiccup he’ll be warming the bench again. Maybe that’s harsh but I don’t see how Des has motivated just 1 player in the entire squad whilst all the others look lost.
 
Shaun Rice said:
Don’t be fooled Murphy has pulled his finger out for one reason and one reason only. He needs a new contract. he either pushes us for an increase (look how good I am) or he has done enough to excite another team who’ll give him a nice contract and at the first hiccup he’ll be warming the bench again. Maybe that’s harsh but I don’t see how Des has motivated just 1 player in the entire squad whilst all the others look lost.
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Why do people repeat this sort of bullshit?
 
Osei Yaw said:
I am not saying that we should stand by Buckingham (or anyone) because of the management above them, but, if Buckingham is sacked, then it's back over to Williams and Ferguson to find the next manager.

For all the chat about PPG and the form table under Des, maybe we should be looking harder at the duo who have overseen the following:
  • Keeping Robinson for far too long
  • Not taking advantage of Mousinho when he was right under their nose
  • Giving Manning the freedom to do as he wished, but not tying him down properly
  • Bringing in Des (for a lot of money) but not supporting him properly
There are a few other bits I could mention, but those are the highlights for me. They have made critical failures with every manager they have overseen.

What makes it different next time? And when do we apply the same level of scrutiny to them as we do Des' substitutions?
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Agree in the main - good post - but I would push back on this point. The progress Pompey have made since his appointment is obviously a harsh contrast to how we have fared in the meantime, so it’s tempting to think we’d have gone on the same journey, but I think (and there’s obviously no way of proving or disproving this) that Mousinho would have struggled to make the same impact here if he’d been installed in January 2023. The whole club needed a shakeup, top to bottom. This is one reason why Manning was doing so well, I think - bringing in a whole new coaching staff and moving on old faces (if done in an unsavoury way - see the very unpleasant treatment of Brown) gave the whole club a sense of being revitalised. Would Mousinho have been able to change things up in the same way? Would he have been able to make the harsh decisions on players that he had been playing and teammates with literally weeks previously, that needed to be made? Maybe, but I’m really not sure.

Agree very much on the Des point though, and on the Manning one, which I hadn’t really considered before. In retrospect, it seems lunacy to have built an entire back room staff at the whims of one man but not tied him, or any of them, down to long term contracts. I suppose no one could have anticipated him jumping ship quite so quickly, but even so, it seems a situation that was always likely to lead to mass upheaval at Oxford United’s detriment.
 
Foley said:
Is he not allowed a different view?
Clearly not ....
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He's expressed his view and so have I. They're different. I don't think Des is a good manager at this level based on him taking us from 2nd to 7th in 24 games.
 
Shaun Rice said:
Don’t be fooled Murphy has pulled his finger out for one reason and one reason only. He needs a new contract. he either pushes us for an increase (look how good I am) or he has done enough to excite another team who’ll give him a nice contract and at the first hiccup he’ll be warming the bench again. Maybe that’s harsh but I don’t see how Des has motivated just 1 player in the entire squad whilst all the others look lost.
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Murphy wasn't picked by Manning when available - hard to see how he could have made any contribution
 
werthersoriginal said:
Why do people repeat this sort of bullshit?
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How is it bullshit?

It’s happened with lots of footballers before. They play their best football to earn a new deal.

Remember it being quite high profile when Ozil and Auba did it for Arsenal a few years ago.

A lot of people are saying it about Rashford and how he’s lost his hunger since getting a huge new deal (that he earned playing superb before it).

It’s a valid opinion he’s given & that’s your response.
 
Most players only think of themselves and I agree about Murphy. If (when) CB moves on in the summer his main concern will be whether the local fishing is any good!!
 
We will soon find out what people think of Buckingham as manager. When the season tickets are due for renewal
 
joshua said:
We will soon find out what people think of Buckingham as manager. When the season tickets are due for renewal
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How many people do you think make ST decisions based purely on the manager? And, if there was an increase in ST sales would that mean that Buckingham stays?
 
Well you do what you thinks best, cos I know what I’m doing and I’m not the only one
 
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