He could go toe to toe with the big 6 but struggled against the other 14
Bournemouth fans go on about a patch of poor form late in the season, but its like they don’t realise they had literally the worst squad in the league last season, and looked like Derby County for the first couple of months.
Now O’Neil is doing well at wolves and their shiny new Spanish bloke isn’t all that, despite their squad being better than at least 3 teams this season.
Mental decision.
Weird thing for me is I accept that Bournemouth fans weren’t exactly sad to see him go, but I never really saw or understood why. It’s like there was a lack of acknowledgement that everyone and their dog thought they were down last season (just like the odds for Wolves to go down at the start of this season), not sure if it is arrogance, delusion or nostalgia from the Eddie Howe days.
This feels like it should be illegal
He’s got a bunch of players that didn’t perform for former managers playing decent football. That’s no mean feat- I can only think of two other managers doing that atm, Eddie Howe and big ange, it’s not bad company to find yourself in a club with.
I think that fact that he’s English means he’s pretty underrated. Same with Dyche. If he was Brazilian and did the job he did last season at Bournemouth he’d get so much hype. Guys like these two and Howe show not all English managers are poor (unlike in most of the last 2 decades).
You didn’t watch any of our games. That’s why you don’t understand. Wish all the best to GON, but I still think that time will show that we made the right decision.
I noticed at the end of last season when Pep was talking about other good managers in the PL he mentioned Gary O’Neil. Pep doesn’t say things like that lightly (ok, he over-praises opponents, but this wasn’t in a gameweek against them or anything).
I guess they just really, really, really wanted Iraola. Other thing I’ve seen is that the owner didn’t want to give O’Neil a transfer window this summer, thinking if they were going to get Iraola long term, they should start getting the players he wanted right away.
I guess Kluivert was the marquee signing? Doesn’t appear to be lighting up the league.