Manager/Coach Des Buckingham

Steve Gilbert said:
I agree to a point but that is why we could do with the club or at a minimum, OxVox, coming out and giving us an update on the HoT.

Manning did well to get us in the top 2 but it was never going to be sustained, our form and performances had already started to drop off before he walked out.

Having said that, yes we may have been well and truly in the play off places at this stage had he stayed but then he wouldn't have had to put with all the staffing issues, players having to get used to a new coach/manager and it would have been a much more settled season.

As WEYellow has said, if we don't make the play offs then I would suggest Tim, Adam and Grant are more to blame than the manager.
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So, if we make the play offs a pat on the back for Tim. Adam and Grant ? After all, they and their foresight, will have been responsible for choosing the man to have masterminded reaching the play offs. You can’t have it every way to suit an argument.
 
dickwalton1964 said:
So, if we make the play offs a pat on the back for Tim. Adam and Grant ? After all, they and their foresight, will have been responsible for choosing the man to have masterminded reaching the play offs. You can’t have it every way to suit an argument.
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Expected you to be a bit cranky what with your team losing at home at the moment. Ten Haag out?

Edit. Maybe you can cheer up a bit now.
 
Worth mentioning that according to the fabled xG (the death knell of Manning, remember) we 'should' have scored just 1.8 goals yesterday. In fact, the last two games combined have an xG win of just 4.22-2.53 - so with a real life 8-0 aggregate win, that's a whopping net 'over-performance' of 6.31 goals.

Curious that no-one is decrying our cheating of the system or fradulent results, as per the whole of August, September and October?

Of course, the reality is that we were ruthlessly efficient under Manning - and I'm delighted that we're now seemingly rediscovering some of that under Buckingham.

We're 'beating xG' once again - and that's a good thing. It should never have been a stick to beat Manning with. And by the same token it's something to celebrate now we're back in that game under Buckingham.

This is a good development. And we've proven to be a better side for it over the course of the season.

Just pointing out the inconsistency in response to it. Feels a little 'Good Aids / Bad Aids'... 👀
 
WEYellow said:
The constant moving of goalposts and bickering by the overly negative/positive posters here is incredibly jarring and makes the forum unreadable at times.

I'm very much in the 'Des in' camp, of course I am, because he came into a difficult situation from the other side of the world and was dealt an absolute shambles to walk into. I don't understand how you can judge someone with a 3 year contract just 6 months into his tenure, in any walk of life. There is absolutely no substance or basis on why you would want a change of manager, and you cannot sack someone on the back of a fan's projection that things will go wrong.

Granted, there have been times where the manager comes into question, that will come with any poor run of form. The Bolton debacle was a disgrace and something had to change (and to the manager and player's credit - it has), but was it any worse than Wigan away under Manning? For me that was the worst overall performance of the season. There's a lot of negativity in our fan base towards the manager for whatever reason, I can't think of a time where a new manager has been judged so harshly on results with a squad full of players he mainly didn't put together himself. Football fans are fickle of course and that negativity has turned into more positive thoughts recently with the good results we've been getting, but it's one loss away from turning negative again. I find it all very confusing, I mentioned after the Bolton game that there needs to be a siege mentality from the fans and team against the doubters and our board and for the most part we've got it, but it's still on a knife edge as to whether the majority want Des in/out come the end of the season.

A few things to consider;

Would we be in a similar position if Manning had stayed? I think yes, our start was positive but one where we were massively outperforming ourselves, a false position being 2nd when Des came in, but also the league doesn't start to form a true position until around February, so we can't truly judge where we'd be right now under a different coach.

Did the board stitch Des up when he first arrived? Absolutely, but the start papered over every single crack that has been evident for a very long time - it just took a bad run of form for people to notice. The charlatans running our club are not fit for purpose and even if we have some success they should not be allowed to get away with it, voices should be loud, proud and calling things out no matter the situation we are in on the pitch.

Is the squad good enough to go up? No, I really don't think so. There is still a core of players who have proved over a long enough period that they're standard L1 players, and until they are phased out then I can't see us doing much to get out of the league in an upward direction. I'd argue Long, Brown, Mcguane, Bodin, Browne, Henry, Smyth + Eastwood fall into this category. I also have a hunch that Leigh and Dale would struggle at a level above, but to their credit, both have been excellent on the whole this season. With all this being said, you would have to credit Manning + Buckingham if they got this side into the play offs and it's a vast improvement on what we saw last season. If not, then its okay and no reason to panic, rebuilds take longer than a season and I'd have full trust in Des to get players that would drive us on to being a consistently decent team at this level.

This will probably read like mumbo jumbo to most as I have a lot of points to get across and am not always the best at putting them across (its also probably why I don't have a job at the club anymore) but the fans forum is a voice for supporters and the up and down, bickering nature of it sometimes makes it quite difficult to enjoy, it shouldn't be like that, there are plenty of opinions on here I value and would love to see more of. I respect the opinions of the positivity merchants (Scotchegg, Steve Gilbert etc) but also the glass half empty types (leysboy, dick, kip, MustardYellow) however the constant one-upmanship is energy sapping and probably needs to stop. We're in a good position with an Oxford lad managing the club, with a new stadium hopefully on the horizon. That's an awful lot to be positive about.
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I like the gist of this post a lot.

If Williams and Ferguson were to read this forum, then I think they would be delighted that there's so much focus on point scoring and Manning vs Buckingham.

They are the people that are accountable for the near relegation we had last season, although they clearly had no intention of owning it. They are also responsible for letting Manning shape things his way and then b****r off, and they are the ones who let Buckingham down from his first day. I know you have said about the assistant manager situation before now and it corroborates what I have heard, which is why I have always been a bit softer on Buckingham than others, as I know he definitely did get stitched up.

I'm not convinced TW and GF know how to run the football side of a League 1 football club, or that they ever will, and as we slide even further into debt then it worries me a lot.
 
Osei Yaw said:
I like the gist of this post a lot.

If Williams and Ferguson were to read this forum, then I think they would be delighted that there's so much focus on point scoring and Manning vs Buckingham.

They are the people that are accountable for the near relegation we had last season, although they clearly had no intention of owning it. They are also responsible for letting Manning shape things his way and then b****r off, and they are the ones who let Buckingham down from his first day. I know you have said about the assistant manager situation before now and it corroborates what I have heard, which is why I have always been a bit softer on Buckingham than others, as I know he definitely did get stitched up.

I'm not convinced TW and GF know how to run the football side of a League 1 football club, or that they ever will, and as we slide even further into debt then it worries me a lot.
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Unfortunately for Tim, football isn’t played on a spread sheet.
 
I don't understand why a few supporters are seeing where we end up this season before they make a decision on the Manager, it seems a bit cowardly. We know where we're going to end up, either just in the play-offs or just outside the play-offs. There might be 1 point or even goal difference in it - so is the whole opinion on Des going to potentially come down to a lucky deflected winner or a referee decision? And possibly in a game he's not even manager in?
6th position - good manager, keep. 7th position - terrible manager, sack - this would also mean 4 different managers for the last 4 transfer windows. Have a little think and be brave, call it out - he'll leave/get sacked eventually either way.

I'm all in for giving Des next season (which means at least until November and even then I'd be sympathetic to keeping him if we're top half of the table). My reasoning is this, he came in at a difficult time, lots of fixtures, lots of injuries, plus he probably didn't know much about any of the squad. There was fair criticism that he probably stuck with trying to play Manning style football for too long (although if he'd come in and changed style straight away and results were bad he'd be criticised for that too). Then there was the fair criticism that we didn't seem to have an identifiable style of play. Mitigation for this was the number of injuries and fixtures meaning maybe 2 training sessions a week, limiting the opportunity he had to implement anything.

I'm sure I posted somewhere that you'd expect a style of play to become apparent in March at some point and although it took a while longer than it maybe should have we definitely have a style of play now. A more attractive style than under Manning too and who here doesn't want fast wingers and an attacking style? I suspect it might be a bit too gung-ho for the better teams, but perhaps he can adapt it. Also with a full pre-season, plus a 2nd transfer window, I'd hope we'd be able to develop a squad more suitable to his style.
 
There's not an Oxford fan anywhere that isn't happy we've scored 8 goals in the last 2 games, but I don't think this should be used as proof of a 'turning point'.

Both Fleetwood and Burton are teams that can't buy a win - none for either in their last 5 and just 17 between them in 83 league games. These are teams we should be beating comfortably.

15 points in our last 10 seems like an improvement, but add context and during that time period we haven't beaten any team above 20th. We lost to every team we played above 10th.

Saturday is the test. Beat Peterborough and then we can start talking about whether Des and the team have turned a corner. I personally think if we beat Peterborough we get play-offs.
 
Bigdwoolly said:
I don't understand why a few supporters are seeing where we end up this season before they make a decision on the Manager, it seems a bit cowardly. We know where we're going to end up, either just in the play-offs or just outside the play-offs. There might be 1 point or even goal difference in it - so is the whole opinion on Des going to potentially come down to a lucky deflected winner or a referee decision? And possibly in a game he's not even manager in?
6th position - good manager, keep. 7th position - terrible manager, sack - this would also mean 4 different managers for the last 4 transfer windows. Have a little think and be brave, call it out - he'll leave/get sacked eventually either way.

I'm all in for giving Des next season (which means at least until November and even then I'd be sympathetic to keeping him if we're top half of the table). My reasoning is this, he came in at a difficult time, lots of fixtures, lots of injuries, plus he probably didn't know much about any of the squad. There was fair criticism that he probably stuck with trying to play Manning style football for too long (although if he'd come in and changed style straight away and results were bad he'd be criticised for that too). Then there was the fair criticism that we didn't seem to have an identifiable style of play. Mitigation for this was the number of injuries and fixtures meaning maybe 2 training sessions a week, limiting the opportunity he had to implement anything.

I'm sure I posted somewhere that you'd expect a style of play to become apparent in March at some point and although it took a while longer than it maybe should have we definitely have a style of play now. A more attractive style than under Manning too and who here doesn't want fast wingers and an attacking style? I suspect it might be a bit too gung-ho for the better teams, but perhaps he can adapt it. Also with a full pre-season, plus a 2nd transfer window, I'd hope we'd be able to develop a squad more suitable to his style.
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Yep, I'd agree with that. Imho I see this as a long term project. There was huge disruption with Manning leaving in the way he did (taking all his staff with him and at short notice). I still think we got the right bloke in (although I wobbled after Leyton Orient tbh) but there was always going to be a long bedding-in period given - the team were overperforming, he was new to League One and had no management team (as such) around him. I dont want to go through managers like hot dinners. There are good signs here so lets see how he goes. I also really like him and the way he represents the club (supporting the sensory room for supporters who need it, backing the Oxford LGBT group) which is hugely important to me.

To those who said sack him early on in the season, I have sympathy with your position (although I disagree). Even if we get into the the play offs there should be no crowing against these posters (just like if we miss out there shouldn't be "I told you so" from those who dont think Des is up to it. As @Bigdwoolly says - the margin between success and failure is just too narrow. And obviously the Des-detractors also want what's best for the club and will rightly be celebrating when/if we make the play offs.

And as @Sarge always says - Up the f*cking Manor
 
MustardYellow said:
There's not an Oxford fan anywhere that isn't happy we've scored 8 goals in the last 2 games, but I don't think this should be used as proof of a 'turning point'.

Both Fleetwood and Burton are teams that can't buy a win - none for either in their last 5 and just 17 between them in 83 league games. These are teams we should be beating comfortably.

15 points in our last 10 seems like an improvement, but add context and during that time period we haven't beaten any team above 20th. We lost to every team we played above 10th.

Saturday is the test. Beat Peterborough and then we can start talking about whether Des and the team have turned a corner. I personally think if we beat Peterborough we get play-offs.
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One game to decide if Des is any good? So a very lucky 1-0 win against a tired (3 games in 6 days) Peterborough and you'll be onboard the Des bus? I doubt it somehow.
 
It's too easy to say 'only Fleetwood, only Burton' - they still need to be beaten and we've done that emphatically. Plenty of teams, with something to play for at this stage of the season, come unstuck against teams lower down the table. This said, there is no doubt about it that Des's true acid test starts now. Let's see if we can exert control in these upcoming matches, let's see some good teams get a bit of a chasing around from us for a change and let's see if we can play with the same belief and conviction that we can against the cannon fodder of L1.

7 or 9 points from these three pressure matches - a points haul that should/will see us home and dry - and I, for one, will begin to believe that Des deserves a summer window with the clubs full backing and will also be deserving of the opening months to get us positioned for a genuine promotion tilt (assuming we are in L1) before the sacking seasons starts in earnest around late October/November. Obviously, if we get promoted this season then it's all about a season of consolidation in the Championship and as long as we are being competitive and not adrift there would be no reason not to stick with him.

Over to you, Des Buckingham.
 
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Bigdwoolly said:
One game to decide if Des is any good? So a very lucky 1-0 win against a tired (3 games in 6 days) Peterborough and you'll be onboard the Des bus? I doubt it somehow.
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Didn't say that game decides 'if Des is any good', I said it's the test to see if the last couple of results are the start of a turning point or if they were just expected wins against two very poor sides.
 
MustardYellow said:
Didn't say that game decides 'if Des is any good', I said it's the test to see if the last couple of results are the start of a turning point or if they were just expected wins against two very poor sides.
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I think that's a fair assessment. There can't be excuses, he has to deliver in these games - it's what good managers do, win the big fixtures. Des has had his 25 game bedding in period, he's going in to these games all guns blazing, players on form, three games to shape the season. I'm feeling reasonably confident he is going to do this, I'm not entirely confident he wont revert to type and sit on a narrow lead for 75 minutes, but I have a lot more faith in him now they I did three or four weeks ago. Here's hoping!
 
13 points from 6 games is clearly an improvement and the team has put points on the board when they have needed to.
But I do agree with some of the comments on here, that we are now at crunch time. We are very likely going to need to win one of the next 2 games to remain in 6th with 2 games left ( beat Posh and draw with Lincoln or beat Lincoln).
We look to be a better side going forward now and are playing with confidence.
We are in a good position now, but need to make it count. 2 poor results now would waste the past few results.
 
The big IF will be whether or not we have any new injury worries to key players going into next weeks 3 game mini tournament.

IF we're all fit and firing on all cylinders, then we're good enough to win all three (if the team stick to the plan and we don't see any individual brain farts).

And whilst you may talk about the lowly opposition we've just gubbed over the last two games, the other pleasing aspect is that we seem to have cut out many of the unforced errors which were costing us dearly in previous games. Let's hope that this trend continues with the renewed confidence the team have found.
 
Foley said:
13 points from 6 games is clearly an improvement and the team has put points on the board when they have needed to.
But I do agree with some of the comments on here, that we are now at crunch time. We are very likely going to need to win one of the next 2 games to remain in 6th with 2 games left ( beat Posh and draw with Lincoln or beat Lincoln).
We look to be a better side going forward now and are playing with confidence.
We are in a good position now, but need to make it count. 2 poor results now would waste the past few results.
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Indeed they would. I also think a poor return of points (less than 5) from these three (especially as they're all at home) would really drain the fans new found confidence in Des and bring into question his long term capability to do the job. He has everything going for him - a mostly fit squad, two successive 4-0's, players in great form, a free week of rest and preparation, three gates of around 10,000 and a Saturday just gone where results couldn't have gone too much better. There can be no excuses.
 
dickwalton1964 said:
Indeed they would. I also think a poor return of points (less than 5) from these three (especially as they're all at home) would really drain the fans new found confidence in Des and bring into question his long term capability to do the job. He has everything going for him - a mostly fit squad, two successive 4-0's, players in great form, a free week of rest and preparation, three gates of around 10,000 and a Saturday just gone where results couldn't have gone too much better. There can be no excuses.
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Hold your horses, our two most important players went off injured on Saturday!
 
Scrongo said:
As a league 1 club ,I get the feeling that some of our fans are turning into premiership, delusional entitled fans .When things don't quite go to plan instantly.
Oh let's sack the manager, boo hoo.
Get real!!!!!
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At least we are not playing Histon right!

There’s “not going to plan instantly” and there’s “falling apart spectacularly and delivering performances of the calibre of Bolton”

Let’s not rewrite history. It’s been a poor start. You can argue reasons and justifications. But objectively, the points total has been shocking. That’s not fans over expecting, it’s fans mortified.

Let’s all hope a corner has been turned, but this is on Timothy, Grant and Desmond, not the fans.
 
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