Vic Buckingham, the forgotten English coach who discovered Johan Cruyff, deserves to be more than a footnote

A Tottenham defender either side of the war, Buckingham’s managerial career took him from Bradford Park Avenue to Barcelona, via Ajax. He was the flamboyant character in the trilby who discovered Johan Cruyff and whose philosophy was the fore-runner to “Total Football”. 

In short, Buckingham broke the mould and, with the great Arthur Rowe as his mentor, dared to try to do so in the uncompromising factory where it was cast. That “factory” was English football and it has always failed to acknowledge this footballing romantic who eschewed the “hoof it” mentality and instead called for the ball to be played out of trouble. 

The enlightened approach worked at West Bromwich Albion, with whom he so almost won the Double in 1954, but, frustrated at the philistinic attitude he kept encountering, Buckingham decamped overseas. At Ajax, then an unglamorous semi-pro outfit, he nurtured and developed Cruyff from a gangly teenager into one of the game’s greatest players and most influential of thinkers. And at Barcelona, he took Cruyff and the style of football to another level. At both De Meer and the Nou Camp, Buckingham gave way to Rinus Michels, but his culture survived. It is no coincidence that Michels was named as the No 1 manager by France Football.

On the continent, Buckingham remains a legend, but here he is barely a footnote, and when England despairs over the paucity of homegrown coaches, then perhaps it should re-examine who it reveres and who it forgets. Englishmen who were footballing dreamers rather than footballing pragmatists were regarded with suspicion and, if we are to be honest, they still are to this day.

There was no minute’s silence when Buckingham died, aged, 79 in 1995, no official Football Association tribute, very few obituaries even. He merited all of those and so much more. For me, one story sums up what Buckingham should mean in his homeland.

As a reporter in the 60s, my father was in the Fulham dressing room interviewing Johnny Haynes when Buckingham strode in, clapping his hands. On the face of it, such cheeriness was bizarre. With 13 matches to go of the 1965-66 season, the club were adrift at the bottom of the old First Division and were about to face eventual champions Liverpool.

“Lads, I’ve just worked it all out and we only need to win 10 of these games to stay up,” Buckingham said. Seeing as Fulham had won only five of the previous 29, it was at best overly optimistic and at worst dangerously delusional. But they proceeded to beat Liverpool and then win eight and draw two to stay up by two points. 

“Only Vic could have made us believe it was possible,” Haynes said. Alas, England never did listen.