[themaclad]

Oxford United have appointed Des Buckingham as their head coach.

The 38-year-old was born in Oxford and played for the U's youth sides before joining the coaching staff aged 18.

He progressed to first-team coach under Chris Wilder a decade ago before coaching overseas and leaves his role as boss of Indian side Mumbai City.

Buckingham has signed what the club describe as a "long-term contract" and replaces Liam Manning, who left to join Bristol City last week.

"There was a huge amount of interest in the role but, from the moment we met Des, he became our number one choice," chief executive Tim Williams told the club website.

"We had a very clearly defined set of criteria to ensure we found the right cultural fit for Oxford United.

"Des knows the club and city already, understands what we are trying to achieve, and we feel is the right person to build on the club's progress to date."

Saturday's 3-2 win at Leyton Orient left Oxford second in League One, one point behind leaders Portsmouth after 16 matches.

After last leaving the Kassam Stadium in 2014, Buckingham joined A-League side Wellington Phoenix as assistant manager before taking over as manager in 2017 aged 31.

A short spell coaching Stoke City's under-23 side followed in 2017 but he returned to New Zealand the following year to coach the national side's under-20s and under-23s, and act as assistant manager for the senior team.

In 2020 he was appointed assistant manager of Melbourne City, helping them land the double in his first season, before moving to another City Group club, Mumbai, in October 2021, winning the Indian Super League for the first time in February and leading the side in the Asian Champions League.

"I couldn't be happier that Des has agreed to become our new head coach," chairman Grant Ferguson added.

"His approach to coaching and developing players is a perfect match for the vision we have for the club."

A prodigal son returns home after leaving to make a name for himself in the world.

Since realising he wasn't making the grade as a player at his hometown club, he's been a teacher, an academy coach at Oxford United - who worked his way up to first team coach under Chris Wilder. He coached in New Zealand - guiding the nation's under-23 side to the Olympic Games - in Australia and then India, where he won the Super League. He's got himself a Master's degree and even a pilot's licence.

Once Liam Manning departed as head coach, Buckingham was the continuity candidate from the off. Part of the City Football Group, where Manning cut his teeth, Buckingham's work in Melbourne and Mumbai may not have provided him EFL experience, but did showcase his style of play and proved him a winner. He is also the same age as Manning.

Buckingham has never stopped caring about his hometown club. Oxford fans will have one of their own as manager. That, of course, is not a guarantee of success. It does mean they will be desperate for it to work - for him, as much as for the club in general.

[themaclad]

Sacked

[Lord Snooty]

Harsh!

[themaclad]

Agree

[themaclad]

There's panic on the streets of Oxford

Oxford United head coach Des Buckingham has left his role after 13 months in charge.

After an encouraging start to the campaign the U's have struggled in recent weeks and have dropped to within a point of the Championship relegation zone.

Buckingham was appointed in November 2023 and led the club to promotion from League One via a play-off final victory at the end of last season.

"The club would like to place on record its thanks to Des for everything he has done during his time with us and wish him well for the future," said a club statement.

"The appointment of a new head coach will be confirmed in due course."

The U's lost 3-1 at home to Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, despite Greg Leigh giving them a 17th-minute lead, and next weekend will travel to face promotion-chasing Leeds United.

Prior to being appointed by Oxford, Buckingham coached in New Zealand, Australia and India, where he was in charge of Mumbai City.

He replaced Liam Manning at the Kassam Stadium with the team second in the table, and although they fell short of automatic promotion, a return to the Championship was secured with a 2-0 win over Bolton at Wembley.

Three wins and three losses at the start of the current league campaign were followed by five consecutive draws, but since then they have only taken four points from the past eight matches.

Speaking following Saturday's defeat, he told BBC Radio Oxford: "I am who I am and we will always be as honest as we can with the media, fans or the players and they know that. We've shown the success of that together.

"We will find ways to make sure we continue to challenge ourselves at this level and also make sure we put things in place to get back to getting the results we all want.

"Our aim this year was to stay in this league, that is the reality of it."

Asked if he had a message for fans, he added: "The key thing for me is they've stuck with us through thick and thin, it's been a rollercoaster since I arrived.

"There's been lots of highs, we haven't had many lows - at the moment, people will look it as a low, but these are the moments we are tested as a playing group and tested as a group

When a team has won only once in 15 games it might seem strange to talk about the outright shock that cascaded through Oxfordshire within moments of this news breaking.

It is not about Des Buckingham being a local guy, or even the guy that took Oxford into the Championship for the first time in 25 years.

I did a phone in when of the 100 or so calls, text messages and social media comments we received after Oxford were beaten at home by Sheffield Wednesday, a grand total of one called for a change of manager.

Relegation always was, and remains, a possibility for a club that almost surprised itself by winning the League One play-offs following a late charge last season.

My initial thought is that the fans have been happy just being in the Championship – the club clearly isn't.