Bournemouth sack Gary O'Neil | Appoint Andoni Iraola

The grass is always greener. Hence the saying the grass is always greener.

Although I always found the grass in Spain is mostly browner so who knew they would find greener grass there than in Bournemouth. It must be the sand. Anyway, what we can definitely say is, new manager always gets a bounce unless he is called Frank Lampard. Hence the saying,never hire Frank Lampard which I'm sure we can all agree is tried and tested truthiness.
 
Great decision. If you’re a (genuinely) smart owner, you’d look at Pochettino to Southampton, Potter to Brighton and the like, and back yourself to have built a team to find one of those guys.

O’Neill did a great job, but it’s elite sport. There are hundreds of better managers.

Seems like they’ve done some very good business here.

Unless they bin the new guy upon finding themselves winless or in the bottom 3 after 10 matches.
 
Will Dance For Chocolate said:
As an AFCB fan who watched every minute of our matches last season I'll say it was the right decision. What are you basing your take on, apart from some pundits who rarely have even the faintest accurate clue about teams that aren't part of the Big Six?

O'Neil got lucky because the bottom third of the table was a bonfire in the season just gone. He did well to navigate that but also made some terrible tactical decisions along the way. He was learning on the job, and the Premier League isn't the place to do that. He'll get a Championship job now and that'll be a slightly more forgiving place to learn the trade. I hope, in time, he brings his new team up and gets a crack at it when he's more experienced. We were definitely going down with him at the helm next season.

No idea if the new guy is the right man for the job but it was a bold and correct decision to move O'Neil on.

As for what about loyalty, well he'll get a nice payoff and does anyone think he would have stayed if a bigger club came in for him?
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Is your squad really that much better than what Norwich and Watford had? Both were down by March last season so I'd say Gary O'Neill keeping you up with about 5 games left was outstanding work.

You've got Solanke and Keiffer Moore scoring about 6 goals between them as main forwards and defensive is very mediocre so I'm not sure where all these top half prem players in the squad actually are, bit different to when Eddie Howe had all of Ake, Calum Wilson and pre cancer David Brooks as genuine premier league top half quality players.

Only issue I think is you spent a fair bit in January and not many of the signings actually played. Ukraine CB only came in to start right at the end of the season, Traore who I was really interested to see barely figured at all (injured), Vina looked good but again wasn't starting that many games so only really Ouattara who contributed in last 10 games.

Guess Foley had his doubts about giving O'Neil another 70-80m to spend this summer and would rather go with his own appointment.

Next season should be weaker in the bottom 6 based on who's come up but I'd be very surprised if you finish higher than 14th.
 
Solius said:
Doesn't really matter I guess. This tweet is similar to how I see it.

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The difference is that the replaced player is still at the club, and has a chance to play either as a sub or in a different position.
 
FootballHQ said:
Is your squad really that much better than what Norwich and Watford had? Both were down by March last season so I'd say Gary O'Neill keeping you up with about 5 games left was outstanding work.

You've got Solanke and Keiffer Moore scoring about 6 goals between them as main forwards and defensive is very mediocre so I'm not sure where all these top half prem players in the squad actually are, bit different to when Eddie Howe had all of Ake, Calum Wilson and pre cancer David Brooks as genuine premier league top half quality players.

Only issue I think is you spent a fair bit in January and not many of the signings actually played. Ukraine CB only came in to start right at the end of the season, Traore who I was really interested to see barely figured at all (injured), Vina looked good but again wasn't starting that many games so only really Ouattara who contributed in last 10 games.

Guess Foley had his doubts about giving O'Neil another 70-80m to spend this summer and would rather go with his own appointment.

Next season should be weaker in the bottom 6 based on who's come up but I'd be very surprised if you finish higher than 14th.
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Individuals only get you so far. It's unlikely we're ever going to have a team of top half players and therefore what is more important is how the manager forges the eleven into a team. The players you mentioned were Ake, a reject from the top half, Wilson, a young player signed from League 1 and developed, and Brooks, a young player signed from the Championship and developed. Even if we'd have stayed up with them it was known that two of them were moving on at the end of the season. Therefore, a team like us can never focus on the individuals as the best ones will only be temporary. It's the team that's built including the lesser players that's important.

O'Neil couldn't do that. He got some very lucky results and luck only lasts so long. If you look at the xG game by game, we should have been bottom across the season's result.

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/2022-23-premier-league-xg-081527645.html

I firmly believe he was taking us down next season. He also has so much learning to do. Once safety was achieved he played against Crystal Palace and tried to do, I don't know what. He played a centre back at right back to mark Zaha. We had two fit right backs kicking their heels on the sidelines. It was a disaster, and I think may have been one of the final nails in his coffin.

As for the Jan signings, the Ukrainian was also injured almost immediately after signing which is why he didn't play until later. Vina was fit but seemed to be too attack minded for O'Neil. He preferred to play another centre back at left back who rarely got forward ahead of Vina, who would bomb down the wing and offer threat. It was all about defence, defence, defence with him. So dull to watch and rarely successful.

He still did well to keep us up but but those claiming he should be in for a shout of manager of the season didn't watch all our games. They just based it on points accumulation and the assumption that we deserved to go down based on no real knowledge of the players. Your Solanke example is exactly that. Yes ideally he would score more individually but the set up was that his hard work and running made the space for others to score. Take him out of the team and replace him with a lesser forward and we would definitely have gone down. You don't see it in his stats but he was absolutely crucial to our survival.

It's interesting that fans of the big clubs moan and complain when the smaller teams set up ten men behind the ball looking to defend and hopefully catch a break in a rare attack as it makes for boring matches. That's exactly the O'Neil style. Yet when they replace a manager who wants to take the game to bigger teams they're criticised. It's like the belief is we should know our place and accept our fate, and never have any ambition to do any more.

I've no idea if the new guy will work out. Premier League history is littered with disastrous foreign appointments and, as an AFCB fan, it's a new experience. He'll be our first manager from outside the British Isles in our 124 year history so it isn't like we're always picking the foreign option ahead of British ones. Quite the opposite in fact. However, I understand the decision. Look at all the praise and respect Brighton received last season. Isn't it better to aim high and fail than just grind out 38 points each season in a boring style? Incidentally, it's worth knowing the owner tried to get De Zerbi when he was a free agent but he passed on us so this isn't some random thought process. It's clearly been in his mindset from the start of the takeover talks.

If it fails, and the owner sells up and we fall through the divisions I'm not all that bothered. Might be news to you but the Premier League is the most boring of all the four divisions in which to play. Fewer games and a massively bigger imbalance between the top and the bottom of the table. So giving it a shot and trying to do better is good in my book. If it works the season will be much more fun. If it blows up in our face then we get to play in a much more interesting league the subsequent season.

Either way, the new training complex will be finished in 12 months time which finally opens up the land for the new stadium. I hope the owner hangs around at least long enough to build that, as he has promised, as it's been a shame to see so many fans locked out for nearly a decade.
 
Will Dance For Chocolate said:
Individuals only get you so far. It's unlikely we're ever going to have a team of top half players and therefore what is more important is how the manager forges the eleven into a team. The players you mentioned were Ake, a reject from the top half, Wilson, a young player signed from League 1 and developed, and Brooks, a young player signed from the Championship and developed. Even if we'd have stayed up with them it was known that two of them were moving on at the end of the season. Therefore, a team like us can never focus on the individuals as the best ones will only be temporary. It's the team that's built including the lesser players that's important.

O'Neil couldn't do that. He got some very lucky results and luck only lasts so long. If you look at the xG game by game, we should have been bottom across the season's result.

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/2022-23-premier-league-xg-081527645.html

I firmly believe he was taking us down next season. He also has so much learning to do. Once safety was achieved he played against Crystal Palace and tried to do, I don't know what. He played a centre back at right back to mark Zaha. We had two fit right backs kicking their heels on the sidelines. It was a disaster, and I think may have been one of the final nails in his coffin.

As for the Jan signings, the Ukrainian was also injured almost immediately after signing which is why he didn't play until later. Vina was fit but seemed to be too attack minded for O'Neil. He preferred to play another centre back at left back who rarely got forward ahead of Vina, who would bomb down the wing and offer threat. It was all about defence, defence, defence with him. So dull to watch and rarely successful.

He still did well to keep us up but but those claiming he should be in for a shout of manager of the season didn't watch all our games. They just based it on points accumulation and the assumption that we deserved to go down based on no real knowledge of the players. Your Solanke example is exactly that. Yes ideally he would score more individually but the set up was that his hard work and running made the space for others to score. Take him out of the team and replace him with a lesser forward and we would definitely have gone down. You don't see it in his stats but he was absolutely crucial to our survival.

It's interesting that fans of the big clubs moan and complain when the smaller teams set up ten men behind the ball looking to defend and hopefully catch a break in a rare attack as it makes for boring matches. That's exactly the O'Neil style. Yet when they replace a manager who wants to take the game to bigger teams they're criticised. It's like the belief is we should know our place and accept our fate, and never have any ambition to do any more.

I've no idea if the new guy will work out. Premier League history is littered with disastrous foreign appointments and, as an AFCB fan, it's a new experience. He'll be our first manager from outside the British Isles in our 124 year history so it isn't like we're always picking the foreign option ahead of British ones. Quite the opposite in fact. However, I understand the decision. Look at all the praise and respect Brighton received last season. Isn't it better to aim high and fail than just grind out 38 points each season in a boring style? Incidentally, it's worth knowing the owner tried to get De Zerbi when he was a free agent but he passed on us so this isn't some random thought process. It's clearly been in his mindset from the start of the takeover talks.

If it fails, and the owner sells up and we fall through the divisions I'm not all that bothered. Might be news to you but the Premier League is the most boring of all the four divisions in which to play. Fewer games and a massively bigger imbalance between the top and the bottom of the table. So giving it a shot and trying to do better is good in my book. If it works the season will be much more fun. If it blows up in our face then we get to play in a much more interesting league the subsequent season.

Either way, the new training complex will be finished in 12 months time which finally opens up the land for the new stadium. I hope the owner hangs around at least long enough to build that, as he has promised, as it's been a shame to see so many fans locked out for nearly a decade.
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Interesting point of view. As non invested fans we are sometimes too result oriented to see the finer details. I would say this though....based on what I saw (maybe 6 matches in all) I thought Bournemouth was fairly competitive, and not one of the most defensive teams. It may be because pretty much each time I did see your team, it was against a top team and Bournemouth seemed to hold their own for the most part. I realize that it is quite anecdotal evidence. It is a risky strategy however to go for a lot more but perhaps they should be commended for it. We can look at teams that have tried this and generally it ends up in failure with a Allardyce or Hodgson brought in during the last few weeks to try to scrape by. There are a few relative success stories over the years too though. I guess we will see this time next year how good of a decision it was.
 
UnrelatedPsuedo said:
Great decision. If you’re a (genuinely) smart owner, you’d look at Pochettino to Southampton, Potter to Brighton and the like, and back yourself to have built a team to find one of those guys.

O’Neill did a great job, but it’s elite sport. There are hundreds of better managers.

Seems like they’ve done some very good business here.

Unless they bin the new guy upon finding themselves winless or in the bottom 3 after 10 matches.
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Don't think you can call it a great decision. They might get relegated - this will be seen as a terrible decision then.
 
Press conferences will be fun with Iraola: he was an intense player and he's also an intense manager. He did an amazing job on these three seasons ahead of Rayo in a very limited budget. In fact, in PPG he's the best manager in Rayo history in La Liga.

TBH, I was expecting him to be appointed Athletic Bilbao manager since he's a former Bilbao captain.
 
Lecland07 said:
Don't think you can call it a great decision. They might get relegated - this will be seen as a terrible decision then.
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It’s a great decision as it’s been made the way it has. They’ve quietly got a manager that they think will elevate them. They’ve given him a full summer to kick things off.

Yeah they could be in a relegation scrap but I don’t think O’Neill would have kept them out of one.
 
Will Dance For Chocolate said:
Individuals only get you so far. It's unlikely we're ever going to have a team of top half players and therefore what is more important is how the manager forges the eleven into a team. The players you mentioned were Ake, a reject from the top half, Wilson, a young player signed from League 1 and developed, and Brooks, a young player signed from the Championship and developed. Even if we'd have stayed up with them it was known that two of them were moving on at the end of the season. Therefore, a team like us can never focus on the individuals as the best ones will only be temporary. It's the team that's built including the lesser players that's important.

O'Neil couldn't do that. He got some very lucky results and luck only lasts so long. If you look at the xG game by game, we should have been bottom across the season's result.

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/2022-23-premier-league-xg-081527645.html

I firmly believe he was taking us down next season. He also has so much learning to do. Once safety was achieved he played against Crystal Palace and tried to do, I don't know what. He played a centre back at right back to mark Zaha. We had two fit right backs kicking their heels on the sidelines. It was a disaster, and I think may have been one of the final nails in his coffin.

As for the Jan signings, the Ukrainian was also injured almost immediately after signing which is why he didn't play until later. Vina was fit but seemed to be too attack minded for O'Neil. He preferred to play another centre back at left back who rarely got forward ahead of Vina, who would bomb down the wing and offer threat. It was all about defence, defence, defence with him. So dull to watch and rarely successful.

He still did well to keep us up but but those claiming he should be in for a shout of manager of the season didn't watch all our games. They just based it on points accumulation and the assumption that we deserved to go down based on no real knowledge of the players. Your Solanke example is exactly that. Yes ideally he would score more individually but the set up was that his hard work and running made the space for others to score. Take him out of the team and replace him with a lesser forward and we would definitely have gone down. You don't see it in his stats but he was absolutely crucial to our survival.

It's interesting that fans of the big clubs moan and complain when the smaller teams set up ten men behind the ball looking to defend and hopefully catch a break in a rare attack as it makes for boring matches. That's exactly the O'Neil style. Yet when they replace a manager who wants to take the game to bigger teams they're criticised. It's like the belief is we should know our place and accept our fate, and never have any ambition to do any more.

I've no idea if the new guy will work out. Premier League history is littered with disastrous foreign appointments and, as an AFCB fan, it's a new experience. He'll be our first manager from outside the British Isles in our 124 year history so it isn't like we're always picking the foreign option ahead of British ones. Quite the opposite in fact. However, I understand the decision. Look at all the praise and respect Brighton received last season. Isn't it better to aim high and fail than just grind out 38 points each season in a boring style? Incidentally, it's worth knowing the owner tried to get De Zerbi when he was a free agent but he passed on us so this isn't some random thought process. It's clearly been in his mindset from the start of the takeover talks.

If it fails, and the owner sells up and we fall through the divisions I'm not all that bothered. Might be news to you but the Premier League is the most boring of all the four divisions in which to play. Fewer games and a massively bigger imbalance between the top and the bottom of the table. So giving it a shot and trying to do better is good in my book. If it works the season will be much more fun. If it blows up in our face then we get to play in a much more interesting league the subsequent season.

Either way, the new training complex will be finished in 12 months time which finally opens up the land for the new stadium. I hope the owner hangs around at least long enough to build that, as he has promised, as it's been a shame to see so many fans locked out for nearly a decade.
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I agree. I was thinking the board wouldn't have just made the decision on a whim - they've probably analysed the underlying stats and looked at whether it was sustainable to keep them up next season. We often see good starts from manager, rewarded with a longer contract before things take a turn for the worst because the manager wasn't all that great in the first place. It's hard to say that about O'Neill however as he's only had one management job and he did well.

Re the bolded part. I often think this about clubs who realistically are never going to compete in Europe (without oil state backing) etc. Do the fans prefer the PL or the hectic nature of the Championship. In the Championship, you start the season expecting/hoping for Promotion but you could be sucked into a relegation battle or a play-off chase. Even with 7-8 games to go, most teams have something massive to play for.

In the PL, it's just about survival for a lot of teams and when it's achieved there is relatively little to play for. You start the season knowing there could be times where you don't see your team win for 5-6 weeks.
 
SambaBoy said:
I agree. I was thinking the board wouldn't have just made the decision on a whim - they've probably analysed the underlying stats and looked at whether it was sustainable to keep them up next season. We often see good starts from manager, rewarded with a longer contract before things take a turn for the worst because the manager wasn't all that great in the first place. It's hard to say that about O'Neill however as he's only had one management job and he did well.

Re the bolded part. I often think this about clubs who realistically are never going to compete in Europe (without oil state backing) etc. Do the fans prefer the PL or the hectic nature of the Championship. In the Championship, you start the season expecting/hoping for Promotion but you could be sucked into a relegation battle or a play-off chase. Even with 7-8 games to go, most teams have something massive to play for.

In the PL, it's just about survival for a lot of teams and when it's achieved there is relatively little to play for. You start the season knowing there could be times where you don't see your team win for 5-6 weeks.
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Definitely the PL. Yeah, you might battle relegation most years but there is the off chance you have a Burnley type season where you get European football.
 
No wins yet and scored the least amount of goals in the league. Meanwhile O'Neil has a win against City under his belt. Guess who Bournemouth play next?
 
I remember querying the O'Neill sacking on here and the resident Bournemouth fan (Mike?) said his football was horrible to watch and sexy Iraola would be so much better.

Now they've had a tough start but 0 wins from 8 really isn't great and 3-0 at Everton kind of hints at where they're heading, I watched the first half and they were very poor in both halves.

One thing I don't get is their transfer policy. They sign endless players with pretty good top level experience and seemingly none of them are good enough to start Everton away? Kluivert, Semenyo, Sinistierra and Aarons all benched. David Brooks is surely good enough to start but they're bringing Joe Rothwell on ahead of him at half time?

Add to that Tyler Adams and Alex Scott still nowhere to be seen despite both signing in the middle of August and it's been an odd few months for a team that ended last season with real momentum.

To stay up they'll have to change manager at some stage in next two months imo.

Edit: This thread dosen't get much traffic so interested @Will Dance For Chocolate take on things two months into the season. Traore another one who looked decent in Italy for Sassuolo and yet he never seems to get a start. It reminds me a bit of Southampton last season and their transfers.
 
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FootballHQ said:
I remember querying the O'Neill sacking on here and the resident Bournemouth fan (Mike?) said his football was horrible to watch and sexy Iraola would be so much better.

Now they've had a tough start but 0 wins from 8 really isn't great and 3-0 at Everton kind of hints at where they're heading, I watched the first half and they were very poor in both halves.

One thing I don't get is their transfer policy. They sign endless players with pretty good top level experience and seemingly none of them are good enough to start Everton away? Kluivert, Semenyo, Sinistierra and Aarons all benched. David Brooks is surely good enough to start but they're bringing Joe Rothwell on ahead of him at half time?

Add to that Tyler Adams and Alex Scott still nowhere to be seen despite both signing in the middle of August and it's been an odd few months for a team that ended last season with real momentum.

To stay up they'll have to change manager at some stage in next two months imo.

Edit: This thread dosen't get much traffic so interested @Will Dance For Chocolate take on things two months into the season. Traore another one who looked decent in Italy for Sassuolo and yet he never seems to get a start. It reminds me a bit of Southampton last season and their transfers.
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They were really really bad today. We were carving through them with ease and they didn't have a shot on target until the 70th minute or so when we started to ease and switch off a bit and we still had multiple chances to score after that.
 
SilentWitness said:
They were really really bad today. We were carving through them with ease and they didn't have a shot on target until the 70th minute or so when we started to ease and switch off a bit and we still had multiple chances to score after that.
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Bringing on Joe Rothwell instead of any of Semenyo, Justin Kluivert, Brooks or even Kieffer Moore at half time was a very very odd move indeed considering they had to get on the front foot and start creating.

Goes to 3-0 and Brooks and Moore suddenly come on, far too late.

Got some very big six pointers after the break so Iraola needs to win a couple of them.
 
Weren't they supposed to have spent more money than Real Madrid this summer?

Their squad still looks up and down like a Championship side.
 
V.O. said:
Weren't they supposed to have spent more money than Real Madrid this summer?

Their squad still looks up and down like a Championship side.
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In the summer they signed Tyler Adams, Alex Scott, Sinistierra, Max Aarons and Justin Kluivert. Semenyo and Traore signed in January. Those are logical signings for a bottom six prem team given their age profile and general experience so far in top level football.

None of them started today.

They signed Tyler Adams and Scott injured in August but surely if either are out to November/December you just wait until January to sign them? Someone like Kluivert has already had plenty of clubs but he did score a few for Valencia last season. Sinistierra went on strike but he was playing a few games for Leeds so surely is match fit.

Perhaps Iraola will say not many of them had a pre season under his style but the 11 they put out today is going to struggle to win many games in the prem home or away.
 
Lost again after going one up against the manager they sacked! They need a win soon or I would say he will be the next manager to go.
 
Tyler Adams re-injured his hamstring and will be out until February.

Regardless of manager they need to sign 3-4 players in January who can actually play straight away and make a positive impact.
 
SilentWitness said:
Lost again after going one up against the manager they sacked! They need a win soon or I would say he will be the next manager to go.
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Think I’ve already said this in another thread, but they really did do O’Neill dirty. He came in at the start of the season when the side was pretty unprepared for the PL season. I mean Scott Parker basically forced his dismissal by saying the side was unequipped to stay in the PL having just been promoted. O’Neil comes from in after the season has already kicked offf, obviously being a part of back room staff helps but he has no preseason and little transfer market flexibility. He then keeps them up fairly comfortably and playing some relatively good football at times.

I can understand sometimes when a club sacks a manager who’s done an ok job for a more experienced, competent manager. Smaller clubs sometimes get criticised unfairly for this, for wanting better football especially (personally I think for supporters of smaller clubs in and around the PL, good football is even more important than it is for supporters of the big clubs, because being entertained by the approach is all you’ll ever really get, as trophies are highly unlikely). Supporters of big clubs are sometimes guilty of this, asking “what do you expect, your club x,” to vindicate shit on a stick football. Hughton sacked for Potter is an example of it going right (he seems like a really nice man so I don’t feel good saying that lol). Overall Hughton did a great job and got them the all important PL promotion. But the difference between that and this situation is that Hughton had been managing for a while, and had been at Brighton for a while,,we had a good idea of his level. His football had always been fairly dull to watch, and with managers like that results are everything, when results turned against him you had pretty bad football on top of bad results. Potter comes in and gets the team starts playing progressive entertaining (I know this is subjective, but I don’t think there’s a person on this planet who could watch Brighton in Hughton’s last season, and Brighton in Potter’s first season, and not think there was a stark difference in the quality of football on display) even though results wise there wasn’t much of a difference early on, at least the supporters paying and travelling to watch their side had good entertainment on show. We all knew Hughton’s level, so sacking him made sense even though it was harsh. O’Neil was as a rookie manager in his first job,‘and he knocked it out of the park.

I’ve done my badges, albeit outside of the first FAW one they’ve expired now. But at one point I had aspirations of coaching at a high level and not just in the Cymru premier. So I always like seeing a manager without a big name get a chance (obviously O’Neil had a great career, Cardiff aside, but he’s not exactly Beckham). I really couldn’t understand the comments saying that this was an excellent move by Bournemouth. I used to watch a lot of La Liga, but less so In recent times, so I haven’t really got an opinion on Iraola’s past work in Spain. Despite this being Bournemouth’s worst ever league start, I actually think they’ve shown a lot of promise. They keep going ahead in games but then dropping points while ahead, often to silly individual mistakes. With the squad they have it was always going to be a challenge, especially with someone who is both new to the league and new to the club, which sort of shows that sacking O’Neil when they did want a great move, and I’m not sure how much longer the Bournemouth board will keep faith (though I think they definitely should stick with him, I have no doubt a couple more losses and he’ll be out).

Wow this post ended up a lot longer than I meant it to be :lol:
 
So the answer is just sack Iraola and appoint Russell Martin basically? ;)
 
Get ready for some links to McKenna/Carrick I reckon.

Carrick's Boro on the charge now after a terrible start and McKenna in promotion spots
 
FootballHQ said:
So the answer is just sack Iraola and appoint Russell Martin basically? ;)
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:lol:
My man Martin is on fire (hopefully I don’t end up like Amadeus with Martin as my Poch:nervous:), 3 wins in their last 4, and up to 5th. I predicted he’d start slow due to the transfer upheaval (€180m worth of outgoings, €20 incoming and a bunch of loans and free transfers, some good players coming in to be fair ) but they’d still get automatic promotion. Put your house on it!
 
It was not a bad move: Iraola was an uprising manager and his job at Rayo was fantastic, but things just didn't worked out well.
 
André Dominguez said:
It was not a bad move: Iraola was an uprising manager and his job at Rayo was fantastic, but things just didn't worked out well.
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I sort of disagree with the bolded, with the caveat that if they stay up then it does the change the following, and there’s a lot of football left to be played and they might well stay up. I obviously know less about Iraola than you do, and like I said I think there’s some good signs with this Bournemouth team, and I’m not surprised to hear you say he’s a good manager, hes already made an impact despite the low points.

We’re 9 games into the season and Bournemouth are second from bottom with three points, without a win. Like I said in an earlier post, I think they’ve been unlucky and there are some promising signs. Staying up with this Bournemouth side was always going to be very difficult, which makes what Gary O’Neill (in his first ever season as a manager) so impressive.


Lopetegui said this back in May
“It was one of the biggest challenges of my life, as a coach. It has been my most difficult achievement as a coach, much more difficult than (winning) the Europa League and putting Sevilla in the Champions League,”

And while they spent big on Cunha, since then they’ve lost Nunes, Neves, Jimenez, Collins, Moutinho. This is a lot of established talent, Wolves made something like €200m this summer. Lopetegui left because obviously he thought they were going to be relegated.


Wolves are currently 12th, and you could argue they were unlucky not to have some more wins, they’ve had some very good performances against big sides where poor finishing cost them.
 
FootballHQ said:
I remember querying the O'Neill sacking on here and the resident Bournemouth fan (Mike?) said his football was horrible to watch and sexy Iraola would be so much better.

Now they've had a tough start but 0 wins from 8 really isn't great and 3-0 at Everton kind of hints at where they're heading, I watched the first half and they were very poor in both halves.

One thing I don't get is their transfer policy. They sign endless players with pretty good top level experience and seemingly none of them are good enough to start Everton away? Kluivert, Semenyo, Sinistierra and Aarons all benched. David Brooks is surely good enough to start but they're bringing Joe Rothwell on ahead of him at half time?

Add to that Tyler Adams and Alex Scott still nowhere to be seen despite both signing in the middle of August and it's been an odd few months for a team that ended last season with real momentum.

To stay up they'll have to change manager at some stage in next two months imo.

Edit: This thread dosen't get much traffic so interested @Will Dance For Chocolate take on things two months into the season. Traore another one who looked decent in Italy for Sassuolo and yet he never seems to get a start. It reminds me a bit of Southampton last season and their transfers.
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Sorry, don't come here all that often so I missed this.

Scott and Adams were both injured when signed. Both came back from those injuries and then promptly both got injured again. The Adams one was related to the original injury and he'll be out until February or later, but with Scott it was his other knee that went. In the little we saw of him he looked incredible and won't be with us long if he can stay fit. Absolute class.

As for the Brooks comment, you couldn't play Brooks as a 6 or an 8. Or any of those other players mentioned. You'd get mauled. There was no other option for that position at the time than Rothwell if we wanted to make a change.

Outside of that, the issues for the poor start can be attributed to quite few things:

1 - Horrible injury list at the start of the season - ten players out. Completely disrupted our preseason and preparation and, with lots of new arrivals, has upset the chance to build cohesion and partnerships as we've had to chop and change so much to try and find an XI that works. It's better now, although we're still struggling in central midfield.

2 - The manager hasn't been allowed to bring his assistant due to Brexit related work permit issues. If it happened to a big club, this story would be big news but because it's us it's been virtually ignored. I can't recall any other PL team being denied a manager or assistant due to this, but I could be wrong. Many managers are at their best when working with their trusted lieutenant. I'm actually not sure what the plan is here, whether it's to try and see out the season whilst he tries to get the required experience/qualification or find someone else. However, at the moment there's a gaping hole in the management structure.

3 - Rank fixture list to start the season. Really rank. Not really a single game in which I was expecting a win before the end of October so I was actually pleased we'd picked up three points in those seven matches, even if they all came from draws.

4 - Players trying to adapt to a completely different style of play, whilst struggling in matches. See that starting fixture list. Since the games have got a little easier, we've started to actually see more of what the game plan is and I hope that means we'll be able to perform much better in the reverse fixtures in the second half of the season, even the tricky ones, as the players will be used to it by then.

5 - Central midfield problems. Scott and Adams were both signed to fill in our paucity of resources there. The fact they've both been out has meant we've really struggled to find the right fit of players for the style the manager wants to play.

6 - Iraola learning about his players. For example, Billing has been key for us for a few seasons and was originally signed as an 8 but proved his best when we played him as a 10. However, given the injury related lack of options, Iraola has been playing Christie as the 10 and Billing as the 8 because Christie is like a terrier chasing a ball so seems a good fit in the 10 role for the high press he wants. Turns out Christie is a better option for the 8, his energy getting him up and down the pitch and it's a position where him not being able to shoot is less problematic. This we only found out in the Newcastle game as Billing was also missing so we had a really patchwork midfield with players out of position, yet it worked. Hopefully, it will be our Joelinton moment.

7 - Bad days at the office. Everton match was an absolutely terrible performance. No excuses. Not what we needed in the first game we would have targeted. That was followed by a Wolves game where we were the better side until a moment of sheer stupidity from Cook when he headbutted someone for no real reason and got sent off. Even against ten men Wolves needed an injury time howler from the keeper to get the win, so we handed it to them with two stupid moments from players for which you can't legislate.

There are six matches to go until the season midpoint and four of those are ones we would expect to give the other team a game. The other two being Villa, where you never know, and Man Utd. I think the table and other factors above gave a bit of a false impression and I'm confident we'll be further up the table come that midpoint.

All those shouting karma... well we'll see. Even given the horrible start, I've enjoyed this season so much more already than what we had to sit through last season with O'Neil. Maybe it's prompted him to think about his approach and he's doing things differently at Wolves. I haven't watched enough of their matches to comment. I watch football to be entertained, not something O'Neil ever attempted even when we were safe.

Was it still the right decision to get rid of O'Neil? 100%. Good luck to him but I'm so happy we don't have to watch that negativity every week.

Was Iraola the right man to replace him? I like what I've seen so far, but the Premier League season is a long one. However, so far I'd say yes.
 
Thanks for the reply two months later! :lol: ;)

No some good points. I wouldn't say I'm anti-Iraola as he did a wonderful job at Rayo, I was just surprised he was attempting to get basically O'Neill's squad to play his style rather than try it with some of the newer signings although guessing he would say they didn't all have a pre season with him?

You could've saved half that essay by saying starting Kluivert after a couple of months is helping as he's an additional goal threat alongside Solanke who has a pretty good return after a third of the season.

Think the Brooks comment was more watching Wales beat Croatia in mid October and him, Mepham and Moore were all outstanding that night so seemed a bit odd to me none of them could get a start for a bottom prem team. Of course Moore not the right fit but the other two have figured more since in the team.

Everton points deduction helped aswell as that's given you a nice buffer over bottom 3 with the crucial recent wins.
 
As I said, Iraola has a totally different approach. O'Neil was all about defence first and hoping something happened to get us a goal. Which was frustrating because the few times he took off the leash the team looked much better. It was so dull though.

Iraola is about thinking of attack, even when we're defending. As you saw today, even in games where we know we won't have much possession, he's drilled them to get forward in numbers fast and press high, even though that leaves us less bodies at the back. O'Neil was all about everyone dropping back if we lost the ball.

One's entertaining to watch as you always feel like you're at least trying to win.
 
Iraola is a really good manager. Hope he gets a shot at a bigger club. One to watch out for in the future.
 
Will Dance For Chocolate said:
As I said, Iraola has a totally different approach. O'Neil was all about defence first and hoping something happened to get us a goal. Which was frustrating because the few times he took off the leash the team looked much better. It was so dull though.

Iraola is about thinking of attack, even when we're defending. As you saw today, even in games where we know we won't have much possession, he's drilled them to get forward in numbers fast and press high, even though that leaves us less bodies at the back. O'Neil was all about everyone dropping back if we lost the ball.

One's entertaining to watch as you always feel like you're at least trying to win.
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Yep hands well and truly held up.

I would say however you're looking way better with Semenyo and Kluivert mobile support options in final third so Solanke isn't isolated. I really like watching Tavernier aswell, very underrated player.

Worth noting that Kluivert and Semenyo were unused subs as recently as the Wolves match so I think that tweak has paid dividends and you look likely to score 2-3 most games now.
 
Someone said:
Iraola is a really good manager. Hope he gets a shot at a bigger club. One to watch out for in the future.
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When Bilbao click their fingers in a few years he'll be back there especially if they're in european competition.
 
they’re quietly on 6W-1D-0L in the last 7 league games, including wins against us at OT and home win vs Newcastle. Cherries are on some run.
 
Alex Scott looks to be a wonderful young footballer but hasn't in any way been the catalyst for the change in form. He was out injured for the first five of those seven matches. He came back and on as a sub after 29 minutes to replace the injured Lewis Cook, who very much has been key to the change in our form, in the sixth match and was responsible for giving away the ball to let Forest take the lead. He was ultimately subbed off on 70 minutes. Never a good sign when a sub gets subbed. However, that's fair enough since we shouldn't expect miracles after his injured plagued start to the season.

Today he started and played well, including a magical assist, so this is the first match you could say he's influenced positively in the recent form. I'm looking forward to seeing how he gets on when he's fully match fit again as he could be very special indeed from the early indicators.

The team as a whole has been playing much better. They seem to be getting the hang of the tactical requirements from the coach. I will also admit that we started the season with a horrendous fixture list but the recent one has made up for that. In the same way I didn't panic when we picked up three points from the first seven, I'm not getting carried away now. Although we should be more confident about the second half of the season now the players understand the plan.
 
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