Manager/Coach Des Buckingham

It's not beyond the realms of possibility that Des is the right man at the wrong time. There isn't much evidence of it, but I'm not sure how fairly we can judge a guy walking into an over-performing team and taking over from a unanimously popular manager and failing to win the players over and maintain the results. Maybe a different group of players, maybe a different timing of the appointment, who knows? But it wouldn't shock me if Des is a fair bit more competent than he is showing.

Having said that, I don't think we are in a position to wait and find out. The timing of taking the risk on Des has proven to be a colossal error. The fans have made up their mind, the players have made up their mind and it's fanciful to think he will turn it around. Time to say thank you and goodbye.
 
dickwalton1964 said:
This is precisely my view. I remember it, we were told his choice of assistant was virtually done, Des said as much. That tells me that the financial package was agreed as you’d think that was one of the earlier obstacles you clear in a recruitment process. Suddenly there’s a change of heart and he’s not coming. Why is this being pinned on the board ? There is absolutely no evidence to suggest it’s a board related issue. It looks to me like a classic slept on it and thought ‘no thanks’.

DB has been really well backed in January, you’re right. OK, one or two arrive with injuries or fitness issues but is that the boards fault ?
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General - Tim Williams Vote of Confidence

Thank you for getting this thread back in the what’s new section. My answer to this, when first posted, was yes, since changed to NO. This was the result as of 2137 on 24th March. Yes 64 No 116 Poll reset off the back of this
yellowsforum.co.uk yellowsforum.co.uk

Ryan knows his stuff. I choose his view over yours.
 
sadoldsod1778 said:
Let's face it most of the players just aren't good enough simple. It's not just the manager.
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8 of the 10 outfield starters last night were the same as the last game pre-Buckingham (Orient away) - the two exceptions being Dale and Murphy (for Bodin and Mills), both of which are widely regarded to be playing well at the moment.

So how can last night be such a regression? How has the midfield of McGuane-Brannagan-Rodrigues gone from controlling games to getting by-passed? How has the very same back 4 gone from being solid defensively and looking to be play on the front foot/getting the full-backs bombing on to competely lethargic and unable to either defend or offer an outlet?

We've had far more impressive results with far less too. Earlier this season we went to the likes of Derby and Barnsley and won with a back 4 of Brown-Moore-Negru-Long, one of which was out of position (Brown) another is now firmly 2nd choice (Long) and a 3rd can't even get in our squad now (Negru).
 
What’s so alarming is the drop off in performance from the individual players (with the exception of Murphy) since Des has been in charge. I just don’t think he has the ability to motivate, he’s well qualified but doesn’t feel like he know how to put this into practice. Big decisions need to be made by the board.
 
dickwalton1964 said:
This is precisely my view. I remember it, we were told his choice of assistant was virtually done, Des said as much. That tells me that the financial package was agreed as you’d think that was one of the earlier obstacles you clear in a recruitment process. Suddenly there’s a change of heart and he’s not coming. Why is this being pinned on the board ? There is absolutely no evidence to suggest it’s a board related issue. It looks to me like a classic slept on it and thought ‘no thanks’.

DB has been really well backed in January, you’re right. OK, one or two arrive with injuries or fitness issues but is that the boards fault ?
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Why is it being pinned on Des? If someone has agreed, then they must have agreed to work with Des. There is no absolutely evidence to suggest it's a Des related issue.
 
unification said:

General - Tim Williams Vote of Confidence

Thank you for getting this thread back in the what’s new section. My answer to this, when first posted, was yes, since changed to NO. This was the result as of 2137 on 24th March. Yes 64 No 116 Poll reset off the back of this
yellowsforum.co.uk yellowsforum.co.uk

Ryan knows his stuff. I choose his view over yours.
Click to expand...

You said it - a view. Your view, his view, my view, they’re all exactly that. He might be well connected and he’s often a good read but there’s been plenty of inconsistencies in his posts too.
 
tomoufc said:
Can’t see Des being sacked next week if we win on Saturday. If we win on Saturday, we probably only need four more wins to make the play-offs. Make the play offs and he isn’t sacked in the summer. Really if he manages that, he will have proven quite a few people wrong, and will be given a transfer window and a few more months.

So the end is not necessarily nigh.
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If I eat 4 squares of chocolate, I might as well eat the next line. If I've eaten the next line I might as well eat half of it. If I've eaten half of it, I might as well eat the next line. But I can't leave 2 lines so I might as well eat the whole thing.

Sorry. Crap mood.
 
Brahma said:
89% of those polled, want him sacked....! :oops:

Maybe I am well and truly delusional. I don't half feel sorry for the man and what's he having to deal with.
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What is he having to deal with? Gets well paid, a decent squad of players, money spent in January, his own analyst, a brilliant training facility.

The assistant situation, yep, that’s s**t. Does it justify sending players out with terrible tactical plans? I don’t think so.
 
A further issue for Des is that even if he stays, sadly the pressure on him next season is going to be immense. He'll need a hell of a start to the season to win fans over. He's also going to need a board willing to give him a big transfer budget.
 
My 2p worth.
Des has to go, it's been horrible recently. Northampton second half, all of Orient, Saturday was poor and we got lucky and last night was horrific - I turned off tv after second goal and radio after third, but had seen enough.
DB seems to be out of his depth and players either don't know what to do and/or aren't having him. However, that is the job of a manager to bomb out the bad apples if they're making life difficult for him. We slated Robinson for his treatment of Dan A, Jodi Jones et al and it wasn't right, but you could make a case for saying his treatment of Pekalski back in 2018 told the dressing room that there was a nasty side to the manager and they shouldn't take the pi$$. Des should have done that with under performing /not trying players already and at least then would have failed on his own terms.
Moving forwards, whoever takes it on (DB as I think the SMT will have a failure of leadership and leave him in place), be that Short, or a new perm manager, I'd bomb out McGuane, Rodrigues and Bodin. First two as they've done nothing since the autumn and don't look bothered and Bodin as he seemed to be taking the P**s last night at 5-0 down (maybe I'm being harsh as his dad was a scummer!).
Come the summer I'd be moving on Brown (looked a good defender in a struggling team and a struggling footballer in a team that are trying to kick on), Thorniley, Murphy, Henry, Browne and just about anyone else who's out of contract. Its all gone stagnant and needs shaking up, as apart from three months under Manning its now been 2 years of failure, as it was exactly this point in 2021/22 season when it started to go tits up and play off finish was thrown away.
 
Sheik djibouti said:
Senior management have handled everything appallingly on the footballing side since the start of last season. They allowed the insanity of Robinson to continue beyond the Summer of 2022. They did OK in appointing his replacement and the team he wanted around him, but then dropped a massive bollock by allowing him to walk away when the first club to flutter their eyelids flirted with him.

They then took a gamble on an inexperienced coach in Buckingham and then FAILED to back him with a team around him and experience to support him as he inevitably needed to learn on the job.

And just who is the sergeant major required to manage player discipline, which is clearly completely lacking.

Des is looking for all the world like the nice supply teacher and the whole class is taking the P**s, whilst the headteacher drools over plans for the new sports hall.
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I could not agree more.

What should be beyond doubt by now is that Williams does not understand how to run the football side of a football club. Maybe he has something to offer on the financial side, but he's out of his depth with the on field stuff.

People are rightfully asking questions of the manager and players, but the tone for everything is set from higher up. The senior management have made serious errors with each of the 3 managers they've had in place, as you've outlined above. It's entirely possible that Buckingham isn't up to it, but he's also seen a lack of support.

Although it's true to say Manning had some success within the current structure, it isn't the same situation as we've had with Buckingham.

Manning arrived with Hogg as a non-negotiable and we did enough last season to stay up. It wasn't exactly fantastic football, but it was considerably more organised than what we'd been watching (although a low bar comparing to the end days of Robinson), but what would've helped enormously was having a right hand man to help set everything up from day 1. Hogg was clearly an important part of Manning's success, he even got referenced in Manning's first PowerPoint session.

Then Manning got to add Price and Krause over the summer and we went on to make a very good start to League 1 this season. When Manning won the August manager of the month award, he said “I actually think the title should change because it’s not just about one person." and the accompanying photo says a lot:

Screenshot_20240313-100120.png

3 of the 4 alongside Manning there were his guys. He had pulled stuff together more over the summer, but he had been given a lot more resource than Buckingham had. The likelihood was that he was also a stronger character than Buckingham in insisting on what he needed, but that feels like another failure of Williams to just be dictated to. I'm of the opinion that Manning did well because he came in and told Williams what he needed and Williams went along with it, rather than Williams taking charge and leading like a CEO should.

If we now go on to pay Buckingham off, then I think we need to hope the next manager comes in with his own support and they're also ready to do the leg work themselves to get them in. Not only is this a risk, but it flies in the face of what a 'top 30' club should be.
 
m said:
Why?

The core has shown over several seasons that they don't have what it takes.
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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.
 
tomoufc said:
Can’t see Des being sacked next week if we win on Saturday. If we win on Saturday, we probably only need four more wins to make the play-offs. Make the play offs and he isn’t sacked in the summer. Really if he manages that, he will have proven quite a few people wrong, and will be given a transfer window and a few more months.

So the end is not necessarily nigh.
Click to expand...
Given Stevenage have picked up around 1.7 points per game, they're likely to finish on around 78 points, which means we'll need another six wins from eight, and that's just to bring it down to goal difference. I just can't see it.
 
Trying to guess what bearing the ground situation with have on whether we replace Buckingham or not, does it make him going more or less likely?
 
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