Exclusive interview with Andoni Iraola: Bournemouth manager on rollercoaster first season and evolving to progress

Eyebrows were raised when Bournemouth parted ways with Gary O’Neil last summer.

Hastily appointed following the sudden and unexpected departure of Scott Parker, O’Neil eventually steered the Cherries away from relegation trouble during their first season back in the Premier League.

Chairman Bill Foley wanted to freshen things up; take the club in a new direction as he put his stamp on the Dorset club, and so replaced him with Andoni Iraola on the same day. “With his contract in Spain coming to an end this summer, we wanted to act quickly,” said the American businessman.

The former Spain international – who played alongside Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta and Bayer Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso as a youngster – led Rayo Vallecano out of LaLiga 2, then to two consecutive 12th-place finishes in the top flight, and was in high demand.

Foley backed his man in the transfer market and bankrolled new signings to the tune of £110m. But two months later, the project appeared to be stalling rapidly; it took 10 games for their first win and by 4 November Bournemouth were in third place after a 6-1 thrashing of Man City.

In retrospect, you could probably put the poor start down to teething problems. Under pressure from outside but evidently not from within, the club’s patience under Iraola was rewarded – on 28 April, following a 3-0 win over Brighton, the Cherries reached 48 points, their best ever return in the Premier League.

“Everyone talks about the bad start and it’s true it was a bad start,” says Iraola, calm and composed – as ever – as he sits in the Vitality Stadium dressing room for an exclusive chat with Sky Sports.

He can smile about it now. “Looking back, it was probably the best thing that ever happened to us, but at the time, it was really hard!

“I remember playing against the best teams at the beginning, in very difficult games. We weren’t there yet, but then we were able to play games where we had more chances, with a more evolved and more ready team.

“It wasn’t the worst thing, looking back now with some perspective, and it’s something that will serve us well, especially for next season. The record points tally was a very good reward for the season the players gave us.”

Rather than returning to his native Spain during pre-season, Iraola stayed in the UK as he prepared for his second season in charge. As a cycling fanatic, when time permitted he was glued to the Tour de France and the Olympics.

Pre-season took the Cherries to the USA where they faced Wrexham and Arsenal and when Iraola returned to the training ground there were plenty of double training sessions.

He knows that preparation will be key after last year: “We have to get there right at the start of the season.” There is a hint of warning in his voice.

Foley’s lofty ambitions for the club have fans excited. Talk of reaching Europe within five years of his takeover last December is music to the ears of supporters whose club nearly faced extinction less than two decades ago.

Considering these goals and last season’s trajectory, expectations should naturally be higher this season.

Meeting external expectations, however, is not at the top of Iraola’s priority list.

“We can’t control expectations and I’ve said many times that I don’t have much faith in long-term goals,” he says.

“When we play Forest on the first day, if we lose, (people will say) we’ll be relegated and if we win, (people will say) we’ll be in the top 10! After 38 games, the table puts you, more or less, in your place.

“You have to control what you can control. We have to focus on each game. I know we have the first three games, then there is an international break – I don’t look much further.

“We are playing in a competition where we know we will not have an easy game; even the ones we win will be very difficult games and we will have to keep working until the end.

“We also have to know in the same way that when we play Liverpool or Man City away from home we will have our chances. It will be much more difficult but we can’t say there are 12 games in the season that we can’t get anything from. We have to try in every game.”

Iraola has the advantage of having overseen minimal squad turnover this summer. Enes Unal’s loan from Getafe was made permanent, Dean Huijsen arrived from Juventus to replace Lloyd Kelly and promising striker Daniel Jebbison signed from Sheffield United for a reported £1.5m compensation fee.

Striker Dominic Solanke’s £65million transfer to Tottenham has grabbed headlines but it did not come out of the blue and the Cherries have more than two weeks to reinvest that fee into a replacement if they so wish.

“We are basically the same and we have the experience of a whole season with the ups, the downs and games where we learned a lot. Now we can go into more detail in different areas; we know each other, I know where the players perform best.

“A lot of our squad is very young and especially for the young players Milos (Kerkez), Ilia Zabarnyi, Alex Scott, Dango (Outtara), a season in the Premier League can make them improve a lot and I hope they can raise their level.”

One of the favourites for relegation last season, at the time of writing Bournemouth are nowhere near that conversation. Sky Bet currently have the Cherries priced at as much as 6/1 to return to the Championship.

Still, Iraola won’t entertain such ideas — even after a positive preseason.

“We’ve done a good job, but you never know until the competition starts,” he concludes. “We have a good base from last season and we have a good platform to continue building on.

“For me, our second season is very important. We have organization and structure as a team, but we have to improve. Other teams are signing very well and I’m sure they will be very good, better than in past seasons.

“If we don’t improve, we will probably end up in a worse position, so collectively and individually we have to evolve from the way we did things last season. Sometimes it won’t be enough, so you have to find new ways to achieve the same things.”

Last season’s rollercoaster ride was no doubt the catalyst for Iraola’s growing pragmatism. Inside, though, he certainly wants more.