Des Buckingham: 'A manager we all loved'

Oxford United manager Des Buckingham looking on at a football match, wearing a blue winter coat. He has short dark hair and a thin dark beard.Image source, PA
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Des Buckingham is loved by most Oxford United fans but the team has struggled in recent weeks

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The sacking of Oxford United head coach Des Buckingham has been met with shock and sadness by fans.

Oxford-born Buckingham, who played for the youth team, was appointed in November 2023 and led the club to promotion from League One via a play-off final victory last season.

But the U's struggled in recent weeks and dropped to within a point of the Championship relegation zone.

Paul Peros, chair of support group OxVox, said it was a "massive disappointment" and that Buckingham "was a manager we all loved and we just desperately wanted to succeed".

Media caption,

Oxford United fans have reacted with surprise at Buckingham's sacking

In his departing statement Buckingham described managing his "boyhood club" as a dream.

He signed off with: "I'll always be one of you. Yellows!"

Jerome Sale, BBC Radio Oxford's Oxford United commentator, said it was "arguably the most shocked I've been by a football club decision in all my time covering Oxford United".

He said during a radio phone-in of about 100 calls, text messages and social media comments a "grand total of one called for a change of manager" after the team was beaten at home by Sheffield Wednesday,

Oxford United manager Des Buckingham lifts the League One play-off final trophy while his team celebrates around him.Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Buckingham led the club to promotion from League One

Speaking on BBC's Oxford United podcast The Dub, Championship expert and Oxford United fan George Elek said he was "pretty upset, pretty angry even".

He said when the club appointed Buckingham they had been "very keen" to push the narrative of the "return of an Oxford boy to Oxford", before he went on to deliver a promotion.

"Decisions have to be made within that context," he explained.

"The way you treat that manager is probably going to reflect on the fanbase too, and I think that's why it's been so controversial because the fans still feel a real affinity towards Des Buckingham."

He continued: "As soon as it no longer suited the club to play up Des's affinity with the fanbase and the fact that he is an Oxford boy, it was forgotten very quickly."

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But former Oxford United player Ben Purkiss said he was not shocked, and that something needed to change.

"I'm not sure he's had that much at his disposal but equally he came in when the team was second in the league so there's obviously talent within the football club," he said.

"He did as well as he could and he did absolutely fantastically to get the team over the line throughout the play offs.

"I don't think he was doing a bad job but equally I'm not sure he was doing a fantastic job at this moment in time."

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Janine Bailey, from the Oxford United Supporters Panel, told the BBC: "He's given us some of our greatest memories over the last few months.

"We hit a really bad patch earlier in the year and again he turned it around, and I think, as fans, emotionally we just felt that Des deserved a chance to go on and do that."

She added: "If you're going to get rid of a manager like Des, who is such a community manager for Oxford, there has to be a really good reason to do so, and the one thing that Des didn't bring to us was Championship experience and experience of getting through a dogfight at the bottom of the Championship table."

A message to the BBC news website said: "Best wishes to you Des. Going forward, an experienced head coach and a few new players that can compete in the Championship may just keep us there."

But others described the sacking as "terrible", "utterly disgusting", and "madness".

Paul Peros said: "I think you've just got to look at the positives and say thank you for what will be the memories of a lifetime.

"But the brutality of football, a results business, [is] we're now looking forward."

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