[Football] O'Neill sacked by Bournemouth - and appoint Andoni Iraola

[hart's shirt]

Spoken with my Dad who's a long standing Bournemouth supporter (born there in 1935) and he's a little surprised, but not shocked.

With the takeover they've got money to spend and clearly O'Neill wasn't the one they wanted to make those purchases.

Bill Foley's worth around £1.2bn. Not massive money in terms of EPL owners, but still some buying power there.

O'Neill had only signed an 18 month contract back in November 2022, so it's not a huge severance.

But yes, purely looking at what he achieved in keeping the club up, it's a bizarre decision.

The club was moving in the right direction on the field. Why risk that?

 

[dwayne]

He kept us up but he probably wasn't the future and its better now than half way through next season. He served up some right dross at times so we have mixed opinions on him. We also had the core of a PL squad when we got back up, then invested heavily in January so the little old muff platitudes are probably wide of the mark, we certainly aren't a Norwich. Are we a little shocked of course but the owners are pretty minted and have a plan. Whether it plays out who knows.

Yep agreed.

You bought some quality in Jan. Who are you being linked with in the summer?

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Blimey.

From the outside looking in that seems really harsh. He did a magnificent job keeping them up. They looked a well organised, hard working team when we played them, just lacking in a bit of quality.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Strange one after he kept them up.

Although a lot of people said that from the outside when we sacked CH.

Assume a change of direction in style or something has happened behind the scenes as don’t think results wise he has under performed.

We were very much in the shite for about 4 months at the end of CH's reign. The surprise at his departure was an expectation that all we were good for was staying up.

Slightly different with O'Neill, they stayed up comfortably. Delivered some great performances, looked like a side that could play under him.

Very very odd, because why wait until the transfer window has opened already, why wouldn't you have already done it if it was a decision you were thinking of making.

 

[Husty]

American owner may be about to throw mega money at them?

Smacks of Saints binning Atkins (who’d done well) to replace him with Poch. That did turn out well for a while.

I will laugh if GP gets the job though, back to the easy life he was so sarcastic about when he went to Chelsea

Is there much track record of Americans buying clubs and then actually spending massively? Villa I guess? They seem to be in it more for the investment e.g. at Liverpool

It did seem a very odd purchase by some wealthy Americans - negligible revenue generation potential.

 

[Justice]

The majority of Muff fans don’t seem to upset. O’Neil has made a few quid and put himself in the shop window.

 

[BevBHA]

He kept us up but he probably wasn't the future and its better now than half way through next season. He served up some right dross at times so we have mixed opinions on him. We also had the core of a PL squad when we got back up, then invested heavily in January so the little old muff platitudes are probably wide of the mark, we certainly aren't a Norwich. Are we a little shocked of course but the owners are pretty minted and have a plan. Whether it plays out who knows.

Similar to when Hughton kept us up and then we sacked him?

 

[BBassic]

The decision has caused surprise behind the scenes, with O’Neil understood to have been informed on Monday morning that Bournemouth wanted to adopt a different style of play to accelerate their progress.

Jesse Marsch incoming? He plays exciting but unproductive football.

 

[Jim in the West]

The decision has caused surprise behind the scenes, with O’Neil understood to have been informed on Monday morning that Bournemouth wanted to adopt a different style of play to accelerate their progress.

Odd. I thought Bmuff looked great when they played us at their place - tbh we were a bit lucky to win that one. Maybe they don't like high energy attacking play, with a decent press and counter-attacking options. Be interesting to see who they bring in.

 

[Solid at the back]

Potter a shoe in

 

[Commander]

I heard a few pundits mention that he should have been considered for manager of the season given where Muff were when he took over. I’d be livid if I supported that plucky little team down the coast. Talk about self destructing! Idiots.

Exactly what they said about us and Hughton.

 

[afcb]

Yep agreed.

You bought some quality in Jan. Who are you being linked with in the summer?

Player wise Justin Kluivert, Nicolo Zaniolo, trying to sign the defender we had on loan from Roma, Matias Vina. Our new owner is looking at you as the kind of club he wants to emulate, probably on and off the pitch with his plans for a new stadium or considerable expansion. We'll see, we're all a little too grounded to build our expectations too much.

 

[papachris]

Similar to when Hughton kept us up and then we sacked him?

Chris did well to get us promoted and keep us there. I will always appreciate that. However his time was up, his last half season was horrendous. As a season ticket holder at the time it felt like I was doing my duty to keep going and supporting the club. But it wasn't enjoyable at all, more like enduring a bad experience

 

[Pavilionaire]

Arguably, O'Neil was too successful, i.e. he achieved safety with 4 games to spare, at which point his players mentally checked out and lost the lot.

 

[Horses Arse]

Similar to when Hughton kept us up and then we sacked him?

O'Neil took over when they were nailed on for relegation and saw a big improvement. Hughton was bouncing around the arse end of the division since promotion, despite some significant investment and the playing style had lost any style. Far more justification moving on from Hughton that Bmuff with o'Neill in my opionion.

 

[Icy Gull]

Similar to when Hughton kept us up and then we sacked him?

Not vaguely imo, we were shit and I mean shit for his last few months. Bournemouth were playing well in the last few weeks of the season

CH needed to go and only @Teddy Maybank ( ) and a few others wanted him to stick around, most thought it was a wise and sensible move to replace him and so it proved, although some had no time at all for Potter in fairness

 

[kevo]

The Hughton comparisons are way off the mark. We very nearly went down and there were some shocking performances at the end of the season. Bmuff were safe for a while and comfortably avoided relegation. I think this is going to be another new foreign owner who thinks he can throw money at a club and make them succesful but who will almost certainly fail.

 

[The Fits]

So harsh that. He'll get a decent job somewhere else.

 

[wellquickwoody]

Strange one

Ignoring the content, as a sacking goes that is a poor announcemen.

 

[JBizzle]

I'm always careful not to be one of those "I can't believe they sacked Hughton" fans when it comes to other club's sacking managers because you never know what conversations happen behind the scenes and whether or not he was on the same page as the heirarchy.

What I will say if that they would have been relegated under Parker. He'd given up and O'Neil picked up that squad and took them to safety in relative comfort after being backed in January with the signings he needed.

That said is he the future for them? If the answer is "not sure" or "no", then moving him on now rather than in October or whenever is liable to be less of a risk.