Vic Buckingham

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Vic Buckingham
Vic Buckingham (1960) .jpg
Vic Buckingham in 1960
Personnel
Surname Victor Frederick Buckingham
birthday October 23, 1915
place of birth Greenwich ,  England
date of death January 26, 1995
Place of death Chichester ,  England
position Defensive midfielder
Juniors
Years station
circa 1932 Tottenham Hotspur
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1934-1935 Northfleet United FC
1935-1949 Tottenham Hotspur 204 (1)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1949-1950 Oxford University AFC
1950-1951 Pegasus AFC
1951-1953 Bradford Park Avenue
1953-1959 West Bromwich Albion
1959-1961 Ajax Amsterdam
1961-1964 Sheffield Wednesday
1964-1965 Ajax Amsterdam
1965-1968 Fulham FC
1968 Ethnikos Piraeus
1969-1971 FC Barcelona
1972 Sevilla FC
1973-1975 Ethnikos Piraeus
1975-1976 Olympiacos Piraeus
1979-1980 AS Rhodes
1982 Enosis Neon Paralimni
1 Only league games are given.

Victor Frederick Buckingham (born October 23, 1915 in Greenwich , † January 26, 1995 in Chichester ) was an English football player and coach . As a player, he was active at the then second division Tottenham Hotspur . As a coach he was with West Bromwich Albion 1954 cup winner and runner-up. He had two periods at Ajax Amsterdam , where he became Dutch champion in 1960. In 1964 Johan Cruijff made his debut under him . In 1971 he was the Spanish cup winner and runner- up with FC Barcelona . In the 1960s he was also with Fulham FC and Sheffield Wednesday . He also worked as a coach in Greece.

Career

1934 to 1949: Player at Tottenham

Vic Buckingham joined Tottenham Hotspur at the age of 16 . His real football career began in 1934 with Northfleet United FC . At the club that later became Ebbsfleet United FC , which played in the Kent League , an amateur league, the London club Tottenham Hotspur sometimes outsourced its talents to mature. In 1935 he was finally included in the squad of the Londoners who had just been relegated from the First Division. Until 1949 he played there as a defensive midfielder and later a defender in 230 second division games. Under coach Arthur Rowe , who took over in 1949, Tottenham should rise in 1950 and then immediately become champions.

Buckingham was in the Royal Air Force during World War II .

Until 1951: Start as a trainer - success in the amateur field

During his time as a player he was accepted by the national coach at the time, Walter Winterbottom , who was knighted in 1978, as part of a program that was intended to encourage young professionals to pursue a career as a coach. He was accepted into a squad of around 20 staff coaches for the English Association. A group often referred to as "Walter's disciples". Along with many others, a total of 300 by 1947, Ron Greenwood and Bobby Robson , both later national coaches themselves , went through this procedure that gave them the status of a trained coach. It was probably during this time that he was briefly sent to France, Norway and the Channel Island of Guernsey .

He began his coaching career in earnest in 1949 with the Oxford University Football Club . In 1950 he continued her at the amateur club Pegasus AFC , a club founded in 1948 to "encourage and improve" football at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. With the push-and-run tactics developed by Arthur Rowe at Tottenham, based on speed, one-two passes and possession , he led the team to win the FA Amateur Cup in 1950/51 by beating Bishop Auckland FC 2-1 in front of 100,000 spectators at Wembley -Stadion.

1951 to 1959: Professional coach - cup victory and runner-up with West Bromwich Albion

Original Albion jersey from the 1954 cup final

He started as a professional coach in 1951 at Bradford Park Avenue , where he replaced long-time coach Fred Emery. Under his leadership, the club held its own stable in the upper midfield of the northern season of the third division.

On February 2, 1953, he was the successor of Jesse Carver , who was drawn back to Italy for sun and suitcases full of lire - he was probably also disappointed not to have been promoted from coach to manager - coach of West Bromwich Albion . West Brom ended the season where Buckingham found him: in fourth place. He then leads the club to the Cup victory in 1953/54 and the runner-up , four points behind Wolverhampton Wanderers . For long stretches of the season West Brom was top of the table, but in the end the team lost form, lost seven of their last ten games and on the 38th of 42 match days the championship lead. It could have been the first double in English football since 1896. In the following three seasons he took with the team the 17th, 13th and 11th place. In 1958 and 1959 he was fourth and fifth, respectively. He said goodbye to West Bromwich after touring Canada and the United States in June 1959. On his second major tour of West Brom after the historic trip to the Soviet Union two years earlier, when Albion won two wins in three games - Buckinham's team lost , who arrived on the Cunard line ship RMS Sylvania , only played one of nine games and had to be content with a draw once. Two of the victories were in double digits. Albion's stars at the time included Don Howe , goal scorer Ronnie Allen and Bobby Robson , who would later become an important coach himself.

1959 to 1968: Championship with Ajax - Sheffield Wednesday and relegation with Fulham

In August 1959, he took over as the successor to the Austrian Karl Humenberger, the training direction at the Dutch first division club Ajax Amsterdam . With the Amsterdam after-work professionals, who were sixth in the previous year, he won the championship in 1960 and became runner-up the following year. As early as May 31, 1961 he said goodbye to Ajax for personal reasons, with the last championship game - meaningless for Ajax - and the quarter-finals for the cup in June. Under his successor, the 28-year-old Englishman Keith Spurgeon , there were still four wins here, which means that Spurgeon introduced himself by winning the cup . The more important Ajax players at that time included Anton "Ton" Pronk , Sjaak Swart , Co Prins , who later played in Kaiserslautern, striker Henk Groot and the young Piet Keizer .

Buckingham moved to Sheffield Wednesday after it was originally announced that he would join Plymouth Argyle . On Wednesday he was the successor to Harry Catterick under whom the team finished the 1960/61 season as runner-up and who was brought to Liverpool by Everton FC . In the following seasons, Wednesday was sixth three times in the league. His last season there ended with his early release from his £ 3,000 per year job on April 9, 1964, after considerable unrest had already occurred in the club and, among other things, some players made public thoughts of emigration. The time there was, however, somewhat overshadowed by the fact that some of the club's players, as it became public on April 12, had bet on a defeat of their team at a game at Ipswich Town and lost the game accordingly. They were later banned for life. Buckingham, however, was not implicated, although the club blamed lax discipline under him.

In 1964, Buckingham returned to Ajax after the club tried to lure him back with an offer of £ 5,000 a year in May of the previous year. This time he inherited his compatriot Jack Rowley in office, who had finished the 1963/64 season in fifth. His return, however, had little success and the Ajacieden had serious relegation concerns. The problem was that Buckingham could not be convinced of the advantages of the 4-2-4 system, which had become the standard at the latest since the 1958 World Cup in Brazil, and was otherwise unable to establish order on the field. His tactical arrangement consisted primarily of "have fun". The highlight was a 4: 9 defeat on matchday 13 at SC Feijenoord . On the plus side was the debut of Johan Cruijff in the fighting team, who introduced himself with a goal on the 11th matchday on November 15th after a 1: 3 defeat in Groningen at GVAV-Rapiditas . On January 21, he returned to Fulham FC in England, while the era of Rinus Michels began at Ajax . He finished the season as 13th of the 16 clubs in the Eredivisie .

Johan Cruijff said in a review of the English coaches at Ajax at the time, Keith Spurgeon and Vic Buckingham:

“They were open-minded, but tactically you have to see where we were at that time. Football in Holland was good back then, but not really professional. Keith and Vic gave us some professionalism because they were way ahead of us. But tactical thinking came later with Michels . Then it started. "

- Johan Cruijff in an interview with Donald McRae :

At Fulham, already at risk of relegation at his entry, he managed to keep the class as third from bottom. Even in the next three seasons, he did not manage to consolidate the team that finally relegated in 1968 as bottom of the table. Buckingham was replaced in January by Bobby Robson , who was under him a player at West Bromwich and until 1967 at Fulham. One of his best performances at the financially weak club was the commitment of Allan Clarke von Walsall, who with 45 goals in 86 games made a significant contribution to keeping the relegation specter under control for a long time. After relegation, his sale fetched £ 150,000 which was a world record at the time, at least in England. His assistant coach at Fulham was the former "master maker" of Chelsea FC , Ted Drake , who would continue to hold this role under him for the first six months at FC Barcelona.

1969 to 1980: success with Barcelona - relegation with Sevilla

After he trained Ethnikos Piraeus from mid-1968 to December , eighth in the league, he was signed by FC Barcelona at the end of 1969 , under his predecessors Salvador Artigas and Josep Seguer, third in the championship in the previous season, but only ninth until then. He introduced himself shortly before the turn of the year with a 1-0 home win against Real Madrid and led the team to fourth place until the end of the season. In 1970/71 he was tied with the champions Valencia CF, trained by Alfredo Di Stéfano , second. This was decided by the direct comparison, with Barcelona losing 2-0 at home and playing 1-1 away. In 1971 he also won the Spanish Cup, the Copa del Generalísimo, with a 4-3 win after extra time against Valencia. The stars of his team that season included Joaquim Rifé , Carles "Charly" Rexach , Josep Fusté and Juan Manuel Asensi .

At the end of the season, as he announced after the cup semifinals, he gave up his job at Barcelona because of persistent, severe back problems - a broken vertebra required an operation - and was replaced by Rinus Michels , who had just led Ajax to victory in the European Champions Cup would have. His salary, which was initially tax-free at £ 12,000 a year, as was customary in Spain at the time, was only increased to £ 18,000 when the contract was renewed in April. FC Barcelona decided not only to cover the cost of his operation at the Royal London Hospital , but also to continue paying him until the end of the 1971/72 season. Buckingham sustained the back injury during a training session and was therefore not on the bench for a league game. He was able to continue working with a special "plaster jacket" until the end of the season. Barcelona wanted to keep him "some kind of general manager" but Buckingham did not consider this to be fair to Rinus Michels.

An essential element of his time at FC Barcelona is described as giving the club a new self-confidence and instilling the players with the courage to play offensive, regardless of the opponent. This is how the players Rexach and Fusté expressed themselves in retrospect:

“With one of his predecessors, Salvador Artigas, we were up against third-class teams and thought we were playing against a world eleven. ... But when Buckingham came it was exactly the opposite. For example, whenever we played against Real Madrid, he said, "don't worry, they're just showing off."

- Josep Fusté

“In the history of football there are certain coaches who take the limelight too much for themselves, but Buckingham wasn't one of those who pretended that the team wouldn't exist without them and that it was thanks to them that it won or lost. He was the first coach I worked under who taught us how important it is to have good players, discipline in the dressing room and a game plan. "

- Carles "Charly" Rexach

A footnote from his time at Barcelona was Josep Maria Minguella , who was hired by the club as a translator for him. From this he developed a career as assistant coach, organizer of the youth teams and scout under Michels. Finally he worked as a players agent. Through him, Romario , Diego Maradona , Hristo Stoichkov and also Lionel Messi came to FC Barcelona.

At the end of February 1972 he was committed by the Spanish fifteenth in the table, Sevilla FC , who were only two points separated from the relegation- obligatory 16th rank, as the successor to the Greek Dan Georgiadis . Sevilla had a strong start to the season and were in third place until matchday 12. But from the tenth day of the game, the team lost the thread and should only win four times by the end of the season. Two of these victories, achieved in eleven games, fell in Buckingham's time, but did not help either. In the end, the Andalusians were in 16th place, two points behind 15th and were from then on until 1975 in the second division.

1973 to 1982: Finished career in Greece

After his time in Barcelona ended in 1971, he wanted to quickly go back to Greece, but his commitment in Seville got in the way. In 1973 he finally returned to the coaching bench of Ethnikos Piraeus , where he stayed until 1975. With a salary of over 90,000 marks a year, he was regarded as the highest paid coach in Greece. Ethnikos finished his first season there in tenth place. The season 1974/75 started strong Ethnikos and remained undefeated for a long time. Only on matchday 16, this series was broken , unique in the club's history, by a 1: 2 defeat at AO Atromitos Peristeriou . After Ethnikos temporarily graced the top of the table, the club was in fourth place at the end of the season, only one point missing from third place, which would have enabled participation in the UEFA Cup .

He was then committed to the 1975/76 season by Greek champions Olympiakos , but was given a red card by the club's president after a 4-0 home defeat to PAOK on January 4, 1976. Under his compatriot Les Shannon , Olympiakos finished the season in third place.

There followed in the 1979/80 season between November and March an engagement with the first division club APS Rodos , which was the last to be relegated after the end of the season. His last position was in Cyprus in 1982, at the age of 67, with the first division side Enosis Neon Paralimni , where he resigned after a 4-0 defeat by APOEL at Christmas. Paralimni finished the season in ninth place and reached the cup final.

successes

Web links

References and comments

  1. ^ A b Vic Buckingham to manage West Bromwich , Daily Mail , Jan 16, 1953, p. 7
  2. ^ Graham Morse: Sir Walter Winterbottom - The Father of Modern English Football , Kings Road Publishing, 2013.
  3. ^ Andrew Ward, John Williams, "Football Nation: Sixty Years of the Beautiful Game , Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2009, p. 42.
  4. ↑ Tony Matthews: Baggies Abroad: The Complete Record of West Bromwich Albion's Global Travels , Pitch Publishing, 2015.
  5. ↑ John Davies: Wednesday No 2 Clark Takes over Posh , Daily Mail, April 6, 1964, p. 16
  6. ↑ Trainers> Vic Buckingham , AFC Ajax (via archive.org / May 18, 2009)
  7. ↑ Donald McRae Interview: Johan Cruyff: 'Johan Cruyff:' Everyone can play football but those values ​​are being lost. We have to bring them back ' The Guardian , Sept. 12, 2014.
  8. ↑ Christopher Morris: Buckingham resigns — he needs op , Daily Mail, June 15, 1971, p. 28
  9. ↑ a b Jeff Powell: £ 20,000 reward! Daily Mail, Aug 3, 1971, p. 23
  10. ↑ Jimmy Burns: Barça: A People's Passion , A&C Black, 2011; Pp. 63, 189 ff.
  11. ↑ Graham Hunter: Barça: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World , BackPage Press, 2012; P. 43.
  12. ↑ A. Astruells: En Atenas, lo mejor fu el resultado: La seleccion nacional "amateur" merece una mayor promocion , El Mundo Deportivo , January 11, 1974m p.12
  13. ↑ 60 χρόνια Α 'Εθνική: 12 Ιανουαρίου, ημέρα των ντέρμπι (+ videos) , 60 χρόνια Α' Εθνική: 12 Ιανουαρίον, ηπωια
  14. ↑ Aki Kyriakos: Γιορτάρες μέρες στα γήπεδα ("Holidays in the Stadium"), Η Σημερινή (I Simerini), Patras CY, December 28, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Buckingham, Vic
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Buckingham, Victor Frederick (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Greenwich
DATE OF DEATH January 26, 1995
Place of death Chichester