Manager/Coach Des Buckingham

Leysboy said:
Our budget must be top four. We are underachieving. Little Stevenage do well on a much smaller budget, but they have a good Manager. Say what you like about Evans he knows how to build a team.

For the record I can’t stand him, and haven’t since those Boston days.
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Our budget may be Top 4. However that's made up of players who were here already, and are on over inflated contracts that Robinson dished out while Williams played Tiddlywinks. Thus why im happy to give Des the summer when he can get rid of all of these over inflated contracts. If he is then not good enough, I'll join you in calling for him to leave but he deserves & will get a summer transfer window.
 
Steve Gilbert said:
Yet we were starting to tale off while the staffing structure was ripped apart and not replaced efficiently.

Even if Manning had stayed we were never going to keep up the form of the first 10 games and many pundits were saying as much. Wigan away was one of the most dull, uninspiring performances I’ve seen from an Oxford side in a long time and that was when Manning was still here.
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Laughable.

Wigan away wasn’t great but it wasn’t a patch on at least eight Oxford games I’ve seen under Des Buckingham. Cheltenham away, Peterborough away, Reading away, Orient at home, Northampton at home, Reading at home, Wycombe away. Say what you like about a Manning team, you knew exactly how they were going to play or try and play. We got a point or two in some of those games I mention but the 90 minute performances were more directionless and spineless than anything Manning served up - Wigan included.
 
dickwalton1964 said:
Laughable.

Wigan away wasn’t great but it wasn’t a patch on at least eight Oxford games I’ve seen under Des Buckingham. Cheltenham away, Peterborough away, Reading away, Orient at home, Northampton at home, Reading at home, Wycombe away. Say what you like about a Manning team, you knew exactly how they were going to play or try and play. We got a point or two in some of those games I mention but the 90 minute performances were more directionless and spineless than anything Manning served up - Wigan included.
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Not forgetting Manning v Cambridge of course 😳

Or MK Dons

Or Port Vale

Pretty dire performances from.a team with most first choice 11 players available .
 
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Yes not every game was good under Manning but there were alot of good performances . And we had a style that we played. I know this is a hyperthetical question but do most fans think we would have more points than we gave now.? and down to managers available there were loads with experience Jones who has gone to Charlton for one .
 
Sheik djibouti said:
Not forgetting Manning v Cambridge of course 😳

Or MK Dons

Or Port Vale

Pretty dire performances from.a team with most first choice 11 players available .
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I’m not so sure those performances were as dire as we’ve seen under Des. Port Vale, for one, was snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. There’s been too many indifferent performances under DB, they were way more sporadic under Manning. The problem under DB is that we are getting worse - individuals look lost, he looks and sounds clueless and the team is shambolic.
 
Symp59 said:
Yes not every game was good under Manning but there were alot of good performances . And we had a style that we played. I know this is a hyperthetical question but do most fans think we would have more points than we gave now.? and down to managers available there were loads with experience Jones who has gone to Charlton for one .
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I watched that Blackburn v Newcastle game last night and that made me wonder if there was ever a realistic chance of getting Eustace. Blackburn were fantastic - energetic, quick in defence and attack, incisive and a joy to watch. There will be a few ruing the missed opportunity with Eustace but not really sure we were ever in with a shout.
 
Symp59 said:
Yes not every game was good under Manning but there were alot of good performances . And we had a style that we played. I know this is a hyperthetical question but do most fans think we would have more points than we gave now.? and down to managers available there were loads with experience Jones who has gone to Charlton for one .
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Probably/possibly on the points, but those extra points would be more down to continuity of the coaching team than anything else, because I think the injuries in the squad were the biggest factor.

You often see a new manager bounce when someone comes in to replace a manager sacked for poor results. The opposite can also be true for a manager brought in to replace a manager who has been poached because of good results and there's a significant change in the coaching team too.

That job is made even.harder if (as we are led to believe by certain posters on here) that some of the senior players are sulking and not performing for the new manager because "he wasn't their choice"

I can hardly believe that senior professional players would purposefully shoot themselves in the foot, scupper our promotion chances into the bargain and lessen their own value as a result. It is juvenile, petulant and counter-intuative to their own career development as a footballer🤷‍♂️
 
dickwalton1964 said:
I’m not so sure those performances were as dire as we’ve seen under Des. Port Vale, for one, was snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. There’s been too many indifferent performances under DB, they were way more sporadic under Manning. The problem under DB is that we are getting worse - individuals look lost, he looks and sounds clueless and the team is shambolic.
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Totally agree by now with players returning and the time he has had and a better looking squad than Manning started with just over 1 point per game and let's be honest after Portsmouth Saturday will almost certainly be 20 points from 20 games . How many more points should we have ,and the performances have been dire. Let's hope they improve because Des wants more vocal backing and if the performances and points ratio carries on I think it will become more vocal.
 
Bicester Yellow said:
Without wanting to sound too rude, you really are clueless if you ever thought we were good enough to be 2nd in the table.
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You don’t half come out with some rubbish. With 10 games left we are 9 points off 2nd. We went a goal up in our last two home games, had the momentum in both but sat back and ended up with 1 point out of 6 - there’s 5 points just tossed away. That’s 4 off second - Reading away, Reading home, Rovers, Barnsley, Wycombe, 2 up v Derby but then stopped and played so deep. There’s easily 4 points thrown away in those 6 games alone and I’ve only gone back as far as Christmas. To say we couldn’t have realistically seen off Northampton and Orient and then not have acquired another 4 points from those 6 matches I mention (making a grand total of 7 points from 18 in those) is utter rubbish. Of course we were good enough to have hung around 2nd - very, very achievable.
 
dickwalton1964 said:
I’m not so sure those performances were as dire as we’ve seen under Des. Port Vale, for one, was snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. There’s been too many indifferent performances under DB, they were way more sporadic under Manning. The problem under DB is that we are getting worse - individuals look lost, he looks and sounds clueless and the team is shambolic.
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I agree, they were sporadic and kind of symptomatic of League 1 football (and the reason most of our players are playing in League 1).
But Manning had the back end of last season, and a whole transfer window and pre-season to get it right.

Buckingham came in to performances already falling away, a big injury list to some key 1st choice players, a lack of continuity in back room staff, bringing in a load of players in the transfer window through necessity, some of who were clearly not ready for 90mins of football twice a week.

And that's before we mention the bang out of form and clearly knackered players like McGuane, Rodrigues, Long, Brown...and now the injury to our captain (which I think it the biggest loss and reason we conceded so easily/appear so disorganised at the back).

And all of a sudden we expect everything to continue as it was at the end of October, but with a different set of players and a different coaching set up. That's for the birds I'm afraid.

I'm not sure why people are so surprised by the drop off in performance or the complete change in style/lack of set style. It's effectively a very different squad who are desperately trying to find their most effective playing style and coming off the back of an injury crisis and a punishing two match a week schedule.

To put this all at the managers door is imho, missing the much bigger picture.
 
Sheik djibouti said:
I agree, they were sporadic and kind of symptomatic of League 1 football (and the reason most of our players are playing in League 1).
But Manning had the back end of last season, and a whole transfer window and pre-season to get it right.

Buckingham came in to performances already falling away, a big injury list to some key 1st choice players, a lack of continuity in back room staff, bringing in a load of players in the transfer window through necessity, some of who were clearly not ready for 90mins of football twice a week.

And that's before we mention the bang out of form and clearly knackered players like McGuane, Rodrigues, Long, Brown...and now the injury to our captain (which I think it the biggest loss and reason we conceded so easily/appear so disorganised at the back).

And all of a sudden we expect everything to continue as it was at the end of October, but with a different set of players and a different coaching set up. That's for the birds I'm afraid.

I'm not sure why people are so surprised by the drop off in performance or the complete change in style/lack of set style. It's effectively a very different squad who are desperately trying to find their most effective playing style and coming off the back of an injury crisis and a punishing two match a week schedule.

To put this all at the managers door is imho, missing the much bigger picture.
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Manning took over a team one place above the relegation zone, Des took over a team in second. I don’t buy this already falling away stuff. If we were falling away under Manning then we’ve nose dived off the Grand Canyon under Des. The squad Manning assembled was a very decent and capable one and didn’t require much surgery, Des has had the January window to tinker and some might say he’s done more than tinker with it.

Des Buckingham is the problem. Sacking him is the only way we are going to achieve the play offs this season - in my opinion. Fine if you want to write this season off and start again in the summer under Des but, boy, what a wasted opportunity that will have been this season.
 
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