.jpg) Buckingham in 1960 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Victor Frederick Buckingham | ||
| Date of birth | (1915-10-23)23 October 1915 | ||
| Place of birth | Greenwich, England | ||
| Date of death | 26 January 1995(1995-01-26) (aged 79) | ||
| Place of death | Chichester, England | ||
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[1] | ||
| Position | Wing-half | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1934–1935 | Northfleet United | ||
| 1935–1949 | Tottenham Hotspur | 204 | (1) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1950–1951 | Pegasus | ||
| 1951–1953 | Bradford Park Avenue | ||
| 1953–1959 | West Bromwich Albion | ||
| 1959–1961 | Ajax | ||
| 1961–1964 | Sheffield Wednesday | ||
| 1964–1965 | Ajax | ||
| 1965–1968 | Fulham | ||
| 1968–1969 | Ethnikos Piraeus | ||
| 1969–1971 | Barcelona | ||
| 1972 | Sevilla | ||
| 1973–1975 | Ethnikos Piraeus | ||
| 1975–1976 | Olympiacos | ||
| 1979–1980 | Rodos | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Victor Frederick Buckingham (23 October 1915 – 26 January 1995) was an Englishfootball player and manager.
He played forSecond Division sideTottenham Hotspur. As manager he won the1954 FA Cup final withWest Bromwich Albion and finished runners-up in theFirst Division. He had two periods as manager ofAjax, leading the side to theDutch Championship of 1960. In 1964,Johan Cruyff made his league debut under him.
In 1971, Buckingham'sBarcelona side finished as league runners-up and won theSpanish Cup. He also held manager positions withFulham,Sheffield Wednesday and in Greece. Buckingham is considered to have been a pioneer of the footballing philosophy known asTotal Football, later further developed by his protégé Johan Cruyff.
Buckingham joinedTottenham Hotspur in 1934 and played the first season (1934–35) for Tottenham Hotspur nursery club Northfleet United. After that single season he returned to Tottenham, then playing in the Second Division, where he accumulated 230 matches as a defensive midfielder and later defender before leaving in 1949.
He started his managerial career at Oxford University 1949–50. After this, he headed the joint amateur team of Oxford and Cambridge Universities,Pegasus, with which he won in 1951 theFA Amateur Cup, defeatingBishop Auckland in the final 2–1 in front of a crowd of 100,000 atWembley Stadium, playing an "attractivepush-and-run style of football where they worked hard for one another, kept it simple and passed the ball quickly".[2]
Between 1951 and 1953, he managedBradford Park Avenue, then playing in theThird Division North of theFootball, reaching upper midtable places.
In 1953, he was hired atWest Bromwich Albion as successor toJesse Carver, who returned to Italy. He became the club's longest-serving post-war manager, almost leading them to the "double" in 1954 when they won theFA Cup, defeatingPreston North End 3–2, and finishedsecond in the league.[3]
In 1959, he became manager ofAjax, succeeding the AustrianKarl Humenberger in the dugout. There he won the1959–60 Eredivisie. For personal reasons he left the club at the end of May 1960, a couple of weeks before the end of the1960–61 season. With the only 28-year-oldKeith Spurgeon, who was recommended to Ajax by the English FA, another Englishman, the sixth in the history of the club, becametrainer of Ajax.[4] He would stay until the end of the following season.
Initially, it was rumored Buckingham might joinPlymouth Argyle, but he ended up atSheffield Wednesday, runners-up in the 1960–61 First Division, where he replacedHarry Catterick, who was lured toEverton two games before the end of the season. Under Buckingham's management, Sheffield Wednesday finished in sixth place in three consecutive seasons. On 9 April 1964, he was sacked from his £3,000 a year job with the club.Jack Mansell, who was suspended by Buckingham from the first team's coaching staff, replaced him as caretaker manager.[5]
Buckingham was never thought to be personally involved in theBritish betting scandal of 1964, which was revealed on 12 April 1964, however the club management alleged in the aftermath, that lax discipline under him may have played a role. Three of his players at Wednesday –Peter Swan,Tony Kay andDavid Layne – were accused of taking bribes to fix a match withIpswich Town on 1 December 1962 and betting on their team to lose, which then lost 2–0.[citation needed]
For the1964–65 season he returned to Ajax. This time, the only success was the league debut of the 17-year-oldJohan Cruijff in November. Poor results, including a 9–4 defeat inRotterdam toFeijenoord, saw Ajax just three points above the relegation zone.[6] By January 1965, Buckingham had left the club. In Amsterdam, this was the beginning of the era ofRinus Michels.
In later years, Johan Cruijff would speak about Vic Buckingham and Keith Spurgeon:
"They were open-minded but, tactically, you have to see where we were at that time. Football in Holland then was good but it was not really professional. They gave us some professionalism because they were much further down the road. But the tactical thinking came later with Michels. It started then."[7]
Back in England, Buckingham joined First Division sideFulham in January 1965. The club was struggling at the time and were later relegated in1968. It is said that the purchase ofAllan Clarke from Walsall was one of his best decisions in that time. With 45 goals in 86 matches until 1968, Clarke contributed to the club staying up as long as it did and after relegation he was sold for £150,000, then the record British transfer fee.[3]
After a brief stint in Greece, he was hired in 1969 byBarcelona in Spain. There, he won the Spanish Cup, theCopa del Generalísimo of 1970–71, in a 4–3 win after extra time againstValencia in the final. In the same season, Barcelona wererunner up in the league, behind Valencia. They were equal on points, but Valencia prevailed due to the results of the matches against each other: Barça lost 2–0 at home and drew 1–1 away. After this season, it was once more thatRinus Michels replaced him. Amongst the stars of this Barcelona side wereJoaquim Rifé,Carles Rexach,Josep Maria Fusté andJuan Manuel Asensi.
In February 1972, he joinedSevilla, but was unable to avoid relegation with the club. Thereafter, he had two more engagements in Greece. When he was hired by Greek championsOlympiacos in 1975, he finished the season to 1976 in third place and did not gain an extension to his contract. His last job was withRodos, another Greek First Division side, where he joined at the beginning of the 1979–80 season. The team was relegated at the end of the season.
Buckingham was born inGreenwich, the son of Annie Elizabeth Jenkins and William George Buckingham.[8] He was married to Lilian Emma King and had three children.[8] He died aged 79 inChichester, England.[9]
| Team | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | |||
| Bradford Park Avenue | 8 July 1951 | 5 July 1953 | 100 | 42 | 26 | 32 | 042.00 |
| West Bromwich Albion | 1 February 1953 | 3 June 1959 | 301 | 130 | 78 | 93 | 043.19 |
| Ajax | 3 June 1959 | 7 June 1961 | 76 | 51 | 13 | 12 | 067.11 |
| Sheffield Wednesday | 10 June 1961 | 9 April 1964 | 134 | 63 | 47 | 24 | 047.01 |
| Ajax | 9 April 1964 | 6 January 1965 | 28 | 9 | 5 | 14 | 032.14 |
| Fulham | 13 Αpril 1965 | 10 January 1968 | 142 | 45 | 33 | 64 | 031.69 |
| Ethnikos Piraeus | 7 July 1968 | 24 December 1969 | 39 | 13 | 11 | 15 | 033.33 |
| Barcelona | 24 December 1969 | 8 July 1971 | 65 | 33 | 16 | 16 | 050.77 |
| Sevilla | 5 March 1972 | 30 September 1972 | 16 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 031.25 |
| Ethnikos Piraeus | 2 August 1973 | 16 March 1975 | 58 | 28 | 10 | 20 | 048.28 |
| Olympiacos | 8 July 1975 | 24 June 1976 | 36 | 20 | 11 | 5 | 055.56 |
| Rodos | 19 July 1979 | 22 June 1980 | 35 | 5 | 9 | 21 | 014.29 |
| Enosis Neon Paralimni | 7 July 1982 | 26 December 1982 | 13 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 038.46 |
| Total | 1,043 | 449 | 269 | 325 | 043.05 | ||
West Bromwich Albion
Ajax
Barcelona
If not indicated differently, club movements, league positions, results, etc. were taken from theprofile page of Vic Buckingham on worldfootball.net and pages linked from there as available on 2020-03-01. Further information was taken from