Vic Buckingham
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Vic Buckingham | ||
Personal information | ||
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Full name | Victor Frederick Buckingham | |
Date of birth | 23 October 1915 | |
Place of birth | Greenwich, England | |
Date of death | 26 January 1995 (aged 79) | |
Place of death | Chichester, England | |
Playing position | Wing-half | |
Senior clubs1 | ||
Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
1935–1949 | Tottenham Hotspur | 204 | (1)
Teams managed | ||
1950–1951 1951–1953 1953–1959 1959–1961 1961–1964 1964–1965 1965-1968 1968 1970 1972 |
Pegasus Bradford Park Avenue West Bromwich Albion Ajax Sheffield Wednesday Ajax Fulham Ethnikos Piraeus FC Barcelona Sevilla |
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1 Senior club appearances and goals |
Victor Frederick Buckingham (23 October 1915 – 26 January 1995) was an English footballer whose approach as a manager was a precursor of the Total Football philosophy.
Buckingham joined Tottenham Hotspur in 1935 and played 230 games as a defensive midfielder before leaving in 1949. He started his managerial career with amateur teams Pegasus F.C. and Bradford Park Avenue before taking over at West Bromwich Albion in 1953. He became the club's longest serving post-war manager, almost leading them to an elusive 'double' in 1954 when they won the FA Cup and finished second in the league.
During his management of Ajax, he spotted the young Johan Cruijff who was to go on to develop Buckingham's ideas into the mature concept of Total Football. Buckingham's ideas were radically ahead of his time - engendering total football philosophies and youth systems - and earned him a continental reputation (especially in Spain where he was appointed coach of Sevilla FC and then FC Barcelona) that more often than not, overshadowed his talent back home.
However, his reputation in his native country was tarnished by his association with match fixing in the British betting scandal of 1964, revealed shortly after his spell as manager of Sheffield Wednesday. Although the allegations were never proven against him, three of his players at Wednesday – Peter Swan, Tony Kay and David Layne – were accused of taking bribes to fix a match with Ipswich Town on December 1, 1962, and betting on their team to lose.[1]
While Buckingham was one of the first English managers to coach top European sides like Ajax Amsterdam and FC Barcelona, and has Johan Cruyff as one of his biggest fans, he remained largely unremembered in his native England Many in the Netherlands and Spain mourned deeply after news of his death.
He died in Chichester, England in 1995.
[edit] External links
- Short biography from the Sheffield Wednesday archive
- Vic Buckingham management career stats at Soccerbase
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