The previous
instalment in this series looked at the way Helenio Herrera ended the era of
free flowing passing football derived from the Austro-Hungarian school of the
inter war years, with his catenaccio tactic. Although remaining a dominant
influence on the Italian game for a generation or more, it was quickly challenged
by the Dutch system of total football, a revolution that was sparked by an
Englishman.
Vic
Buckingham was a former Tottenham Hotspur team mate of Arthur Rowe (TMWMMF #15)
in a playing career cut short by World War Two. Buckingham admired Rowe's
appreciation of the art of passing, and with Rowe's encouragement went into
management in Post War England. A deep thinker and articulate speaker a spell
coaching at Oxford University led to a prestigious appointment to manage
Pegasus before re-entering the professional game at Bradford Park Avenue. He
then took over at West Bromwich Albion, almost winning the first modern double
with the Baggies in 1954 when an FA Cup win was matched with runners up spot in
the League.
With a side
containing future managers Don Howe and Ronnie Allen, it was one of their team
mates Graham Williams who came up with a delicious metaphor to describe West
Brom's style of play:
‘He wasn’t
interested in defending. He wanted to see tricks and goals and push and run. He
said he didn’t want us to go ‘da di da di da’, passing for the sake of passing.
He always said he wanted us to play like ice cream and chocolate. That was his
phrase. Just flow, like ice cream and chocolate.’
This was
push and run in the style of Rowe's Tottenham, but like his mentor his team
only shone briefly, overshadowed in a more physical footballing era dominated
by local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers.
In 1959 he
moved to the Netherlands to manage Ajax, where the professional game was in its
infancy. He found a club redolent with the influence of Jack Reynolds (TMWMMF
#8), Buckingham explaining: “Their skills were different. Their intellect was
different and they played proper football. They didn’t get this from me, it was
there waiting to be stirred up. I influenced them but they went on and did
things above that which delighted me."
Taking the
opportunity to develop ideas discussed years previously with Rowe, who had
spent time in Hungary, he sowed the seeds of the system which would make Ajax
champions of Europe a decade later and establish Dutch football as a major
force in the game. This was nothing short of a philosophy which would envelop
the whole club in terms of technical development and positional play.
Buckingham won the Eredivise title and the Dutch Cup, in his first two year
spell in Amsterdam, when he also spotted a talented 12-year-old in the junior
section called Cruyff.
By 1961
Buckingham was back in England with Sheffield Wednesday but with his reputation
tarnished by a match fixing scandal which engulfed the Owls he returned briefly
to Amsterdam in 1964 in time to give a debut to a teenage Johann Cruyff around
whom the great Ajax team would be built.
Following a
controversial spell at Fulham he returned to the continent when Barcelona,
remembering an Inter Cities Fairs Cup tie at Sheffield Wednesday in the early
60s, harked back to the time of Jack Pentland (TMWMMF #9) by turning to
Buckingham to rejuvenate a team that had fallen to the lower reaches of La
Liga.
In a
wonderful final flourish as manager Buckingham's style was the perfect match
for the Catalan club, and within two seasons repeated his feat from the
Hawthorns by almost winning the double.
His team
were pipped to the title by Valencia, as despite having the same points and a
better goal difference, the Spanish championship was decided by the head to
head record between the two clubs. However he achieved a modicum of revenge and wrote his name into the club
annals of history by going onto win the 1971 Copa del Rey, then known as the
Copa del Generalísimo, 4-3 after extra time against Valencia, a triumph played out in front of deadly rivals Real Madrid's biggest fan, the dictator
General Franco, who presented the trophy at the Bernabéu.
Back surgery
forced Buckingham to step down but before he did so he worked with Barcelona to
lift the Spanish FA's ban on foreign players. He was then replaced by Ajax
manager Rinus Michels who brought with him his star player Johann Cruyff.
Buckingham's
career then wound down at the likes of Sevilla and Olympiakos, his key role in the
development of the game being a connector of football's knowledge network. A
man who came into contact with others who had more illustrious careers, soaking
up their ideas, first adapting and then passing them onto future greats. A man
of sophistication with the ability to boil his philosophy down simply thus:
“Long-ball
football is too risky. Most of the time what pays off is educated skills. If
you’ve got the ball, keep it. The other side can’t score.”
