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AFC Bournemouth are coming off the back of their best season ever, finishing sixth in the Premier League and clinching European football for the first time in the club’s history.
As Matt from Up the Cherries is about to tell you, it’s an exciting time to be a Bournemouth fan. It seems, despite the departure of Andoni Iraola, this hasn’t wavered the feel-good vibe amongst the fan base, with excitement brewing around the appointment of German boss Marko Rose.
Matt is waving the flag of support for the former RB Leipzig boss. He said: “Our recruitment’s always been very, very good. And I think Marco’s football isn’t too dissimilar to what we’re used to. I think that’s a really important one.
“He’s also a winner. He’s won trophies as well, which I think is very, very key now. He’s at a different level of his career to Andoni (Iraola).”
A winner, he certainly is. Two Austrian Bundesligas, an Austrian cup, a DFB-Pokal triumph in 2023 and a Supercup to follow that up means the 49-year-old has a decorated managerial career already.
Despite this, Matt sees a different ideal world: “Now in an ideal world, Andoni would still be the manager and we’d all still be very, very happy and he’d be seeing us through next season. But that’s not the case.”
Cherries fans obviously fell in love with Iraola, yet there were some eyebrows raised when the Spaniard arrived on the South coast.
“I never really saw Gary O’Neill as a long-term answer, in all honesty. So, I wasn’t surprised that the club made the change, but of course, nobody kind of really knew who this guy was.
“I think it took a little bit of time to get his philosophy across. Obviously, he inherited a fairly decent squad, but the squad was strengthened obviously over his period of time at the club.”
In his first nine games, three draws and six losses with 20 goals conceded saw many at Dean Court turn their backs on the former Bilbao man. Matt remained one of the few hopefuls for the rest of his tenure.
“I kind of saw within those first nine games, I thought when something clicks here, we’re going to be playing some excellent football. I would never (have thought) at the time, if you’d have told me three years later, we would be in the Europa League, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
Clicked, it certainly did. Even more so, it meant if very rarely went totally wrong during his tenure:
“I think I could easily count on one hand how many dreadful performances we’ve had under Andoni, and I don’t think I’d need to use any more than two fingers, to be honest.
“There’s not been many real dreadful performances. I don’t think Liverpool fans will have much worry in that on that front.”
Liverpool fans may have lots to worry about this summer, with lots of maintenance still needed in the squad despite spending nearly £450 million last summer. The glaring issues for the 20-time champions seem to be in midfield, on the wings and in the full back areas.
After the World Cup, Iraola will get his chance to examine the squad in the US, where his side are set to face Leeds United and Wrexham, before returning to game soil against AS Monaco and Como to round off pre-season at Anfield.
Like any manager, some players will be turfed out from the get go. So who suffered this fate when Iraola arrived in summer 2023?
“There’s players obviously I don’t think would have fitted into his system that have kind of gone out on loan and have moved on. One being Max Aarons, for example, highly rated right back. He’s got caps at under 21 level for England. A personal favourite of mine, I think he’s a fantastic player, but just somehow didn’t seem to really fit into Andoni’s system.”
Aarons was a versatile, high-flying full back that offered fantastic pace, despite his limited offensive output. Physically, he profiles similar to Jeremie Frimpong, who had a tumultuous time in Merseyside this season. With the low £35 million he was purchased for last season, it may not be a surprise to see him packing his bags once more if Iraola shares the same thoughts on him as he did Aarons.
There’s lots that Iraola does so well, apparent from the steady progression he carried out at Bournemouth. So where does he rank in the all-time conversations for Bournemouth fans? Matt summarised the debate well:
“It’s a very, very difficult question because, we’ve got Eddie Howe who has a legacy at the football club. He came up through the youth system. He was a player for us. He took us over when we were rock bottom of the football league, still on minus points. Then we managed to turn things around and stay up. And then he took us up through the divisions.
“Eddie built the club to what it was, and got “little old Bournemouth” to the Premier League and kept us in the Premier League consistently.
“So, for me, I think it’s always going to be Eddie Howe. Andoni comes in second, definitely, because he’s given us this European legacy. If he has stayed with us and seen the Europa League through, who knows?”
Who knows what may happen at Anfield, but if the 43-year-old can replicate the same style of football he has done at Dean Court, success may be back in L7 very soon.
Thumbnail credit: AFC Bournemouth via Wikimedia Commons
