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Vic Buckingham


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Wondering what memorys some of the older members of the forum have of Vic Buckingham and his Wednesday side.

 

Was surprised to read that he was the architect of "total football" I always thought it was Renus Michels philosophy. Did his Wednesday side play good football? 

 

Seems like he had had a great career in management abroad at Barcelona and Ajax.

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I started going at the end of Cattericks period so my main memories of Buckingham’s team were of a fast, attractive footballing side that scored plenty of goals and were a match for anyone. To me it seemed he carried on from Catterick with the conventional formation of the time. 2 full backs, 3 half backs and 5 forwards.

This only seemed to change when Alan Brown came in.

Ive never been a tactics person so I’d bow to someone else’s opinion on this.

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He played some smashing football and given a bit of investment would probably have won us something. He was a very urbane bloke, much more at home socialising with establishment figures and actors etc. rather than footballers....which I suspect didn't meet with Eric Taylors approval at that time, so he was moved on in favour of the "Hard man" image of Alan Brown.

Buckingham was credited with finding and nurturing the young Johan Cruyff at Ajax and the player acknowledged the part Buckingham played in developing the "total football" they played.

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3 hours ago, Hougoumont said:

He played some smashing football and given a bit of investment would probably have won us something. He was a very urbane bloke, much more at home socialising with establishment figures and actors etc. rather than footballers....which I suspect didn't meet with Eric Taylors approval at that time, so he was moved on in favour of the "Hard man" image of Alan Brown.

Buckingham was credited with finding and nurturing the young Johan Cruyff at Ajax and the player acknowledged the part Buckingham played in developing the "total football" they played.

 

He paid the price for the 'bribes scandal'.  The board thought he was too relaxed with the players and replaced him with the authoritarian Brown.

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35 minutes ago, Sham67 said:

 

He paid the price for the 'bribes scandal'.  The board thought he was too relaxed with the players and replaced him with the authoritarian Brown.

 

It was already decided that he would be released at the end of his contract...the bribes scandal broke shortly after he left, so unless the Wednesday board had a heads up from someone at,"The People".....which I doubt, it being a major exclusive.... it would seem that neither he nor they were aware of it until after he left.

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Don't know if it's true but I was told he had a bit of a "mean streak" in him with training methods, to improve balance he made players hurdle over crush barriers on terraces and also leap from one to another without falling!!

Seem to remember Rodney Marsh saying something similar when reminising of Buckingham. ...

Not that I'd imagine Marsh was the epitome of training effort !!

Maybe Carlos found a notebook lying around the managers office and incorporated Buckinghams training methods too?

:carlosswfc: 

 

 

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My first Owls manager,we played some really entertaining football under Vic,it was great to watch,from what Ive heard the players had a certain amount of input into tactics,it was a joy to watch.

I dont think the board bought into his ideas,he was WAY way ahead of his time,and as such didnt back him in transfers.

As Sham67 says,he paid the price for the betting fiasco,he was seen as too laid back disciplinary wise and so Alan Brown replaced him,from where we seemed to slide.

I wasnt a fan of Brown,we played some dour stuff under him @ times.

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20 minutes ago, Colin Dobson said:

He was my favourite - so yes you're right!

Sorry Col 

I thought you were Colin .....

Serious question Col 

Was Dobson in the same Gasmen team that included the smash n grab (Warboys n Bannister) ?

Megson was manager around that time too ?

Also remember him at Huddersfield with Frank Worthington what a partnership that would be in today's money? ...

 

Edited by OWLERTON GHOST
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from what I've read Buckingham wasn't popular with the players …….the crowds dropped like a stone with him in charge even though we never finished outside the top 6 which sort of goes against we were an attractive team to watch . …….i'm only guessing but taylor and him were chalk and cheese and no real surprise when the board got rid . …..cant have been an easy job though for him coz in the 3 years he was here I can only think of 3 players that he  signed from other league clubs which tells you how much ambition the board had .  

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2 hours ago, torryowl said:

from what I've read Buckingham wasn't popular with the players …….the crowds dropped like a stone with him in charge even though we never finished outside the top 6 which sort of goes against we were an attractive team to watch . …….i'm only guessing but taylor and him were chalk and cheese and no real surprise when the board got rid . …..cant have been an easy job though for him coz in the 3 years he was here I can only think of 3 players that he  signed from other league clubs which tells you how much ambition the board had .  

Footy attendances dipped by around 2M in 60-61 and never fully recovered untill the world cup win,by 66-67 they went back upto 14M+ and in 67-68 hit over 15M an increase of over 3.5M on 60/61,in 1961/62 we had the 6th highest home average attendance in english football.

Joys of the internet :picnic:

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14 minutes ago, legendaryswan said:

Footy attendances dipped by around 2M in 60-61 and never fully recovered untill the world cup win,by 66-67 they went back upto 14M+ and in 67-68 hit over 15M an increase of over 3.5M on 60/61,in 1961/62 we had the 6th highest home average attendance in english football.

Joys of the internet :picnic:

but by the time Buckingham left we'd dropped to 10th and lost 6000 supporters from when he took over …...I remember him as not being popular but like I said earlier he  was probably hamstrung by the board's tightness in the transfer market . 

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2 minutes ago, torryowl said:

but by the time Buckingham left we'd dropped to 10th and lost 6000 supporters from when he took over …...I remember him as not being popular but like I said earlier he  was probably hamstrung by the board's tightness in the transfer market . 

Very true,quite a few clubs had declining attendances at the time,wed slipped to 10th best supported club by then,matched our league position......the board in those days was a closed shop,

I know a few wealthy businessmen approached the board to offer investment for a boardroom seat in the 60s,with fortunes that eclipsed the boubon crunchers,my old man was one of them,but i can think of 4 or 5,that had the kind of money that could have seriously transformed our fortunes,but they all got the cold shoulder,theyd have embarassed the then board with the wealth they all held

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