{"id":1372,"date":"2017-06-20T17:47:53","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T16:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ajaxdaily.com\/?p=1372"},"modified":"2018-03-21T14:51:37","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T14:51:37","slug":"youve-got-ball-keep-side-cant-score","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ajaxdaily.com\/2017\/youve-got-ball-keep-side-cant-score\/","title":{"rendered":"“If you have got the ball, keep it. The other side cannot score.”"},"content":{"rendered":"
According to number of sources there was once a respectable English coach who’s pre-match talk to his Barcelona players consisted of ‘f*ck Betis’ and a well aimed kick at the tactics board which sent it flying across the dressing room. (Alex Ferguson in his heyday would have been proud).<\/p>\n
Who was this coach? It was a man called Vic Buckingham. What has this got to do with Ajax I hear some of you say? Well, Buckingham managed Ajax on 2 brief occasions. Perhaps more importantly though, during his first spell at the club he unearthed a talented 12 year old called Johan Cruyff and in his second stint was responsible for giving the then 17 year old Cruyff his first team debut. Legend has it that Buckingham’s influence on Cruyff’s life and career was so great that he became Godfather to one of his children. (No doubt this is probably untrue but what a wonderful touch it would have been)<\/p>\n
Buckingham’s playing career at Football League level was spent entirely with Tottenham Hotspur. He played 204 times for the club during the1930s and 40s. Interestingly Tottenham were in the old second division during all of Buckingham’s playing career and he never got to play top flight football. In fact the most valuable part of his playing career was probably towards the end, when he was on hand to witness the advent of the Spurs manager, Arthur Rowe’s, revolutionary push and run type of football.<\/p>\n
I was going to say that Buckingham was better known as a coach than a player, but these days when his memory has all but been forgotten I’m not sure that is true. I can just about remember him as manager of Fulham in the late 1960s but have no memory of him managing Barcelona after that. I didn’t know, until researching this article, that he had managed Ajax either. It’s a sad fact the we English constantly bemoan the lack of forward thinking native coaches like Buckingham, but when we have them we don’t recognise them or their achievements, particularly if they happen in other countries.<\/p>\n