196 - Gary O'Neil Departs As Andoni Iraola Arrives!

Back Of The Net - The AFC Bournemouth Podcast

On June 19th at 12:30pm, it came as a surprise to AFC Bournemouth and the wider footballing world that Gary O’Neil had been relieved of his duties as AFC Bournemouth head coach, just over a month after Cherries confirmed their Premier League survival. He was replaced, almost immediately, with Spaniard Andoni Iraola.

O’Neil, who fell in to the job, had a remit to keep us in the top flight - he fulfilled that, and he did it with four games to spare. He took a side mentally shattered after a 9-0 at Liverpool, went on a long unbeaten run, and despite a blip in January - he enabled us to get over the line after a superb April which took the Premier League by surprise. But after 37 games in charge, the stats weren't pretty - he lost 20 games, with a 29% win percentage. Do these stats tesselate with Foley’s vision?

Cherries fans, despite the elation of survival, have still been unsure what the identity is! In some games we went 3 at the back, some we went 4 at the back, and in other games - we were constantly shifting formation during the game - so does Iraola's arrival perhaps give the recruitment team a little more "meat on the bones" ahead of what could be a busy summer of transfer activity for the Cherries?

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