When Bournemouth sacked Gary O’Neil, it looked like the harshest cut.
Having guided a team that were odds-on for relegation before the season to safety with five points to spare, O’Neil’s managerial stock was high before Monday’s surprise dismissal.
But the Cherries’ ambitious new management, bankrolled by billionaire Texan Bill Foley, clearly believe they have secured a substantial upgrade by moving quickly to replace him with Andoni Iraola.
A high priest of pressing and disciple of Marcelo Bielsa, the 41-year-old is fresh from leading Rayo Vallecano – La Liga‘s smallest team – to sixth and 11th-placed finishes. Foley and company believe he can repeat the feat with the Cherries, backed by the biggest transfer budget he’s ever operated with.
It is a gamble but one that will reap instant rewards, according to a player whose “life was changed” by working with Iraola. He believes Bournemouth have employed “the next Mikel Arteta or Unai Emery“, likening his former boss’s intensity and tactical acumen to that of his two compatriots.
Alberto Sansinena, better known as Tete, was a 32-year-old journeyman winger nearing the end of his career with Iraola took over at Cypriot first division club AEK Larnaca, the first posting of his managerial career.
The intensity and expectation of Larnaca was a culture shock for Iraola, who had just retired after a swansong in New York playing alongside David Villa and Frank Lampard.
But Sansinena remembers a coach in a hurry. “The first thing I remember is his enthusiasm. He changed our system of play almost immediately, he wanted intensity,” he says.
“Everything had to change, the way we played, the way we trained. I was 32 years old and had been playing for a long time but I learned so much with him.
“The players liked him, he wasn’t super close to us but he was honest and we had a clear method. I think he likes Arteta’s game model a lot but I also see Unai Emery in him: He has the same ideas: organised defence, high press, a team that competes.
“The year before he arrived I was playing as a wing-back but he said to me ‘No, I want you back as a winger, I want you in the box’. I scored some nice goals that year.”
Training was “intense”, Sansinena says, reminding him of stories he’d heard about Bielsa’s Athletic Bilbao.
“He loved training, that was where he would do his work, and he would often join us in the sessions. In fact, he was usually the best player on the pitch still,” Sancha recalls.
Iraola’s way was a 4-4-2, “orderly and compact” at the back but “very aggressive” in their play. “We had a very distinct style, we attacked, we pressed, we were physical and quick. It would have been perfect for British football,” Sansinena – now training to be a coach himself – says.
Iraola was learning in Cyprus, embracing lessons which stood him in good stead in Spain. He led the club into the group stages of the Europa League for only the second time before paying for a bad run of form in his second season.
He then went to Rayo Vallecano, a proudly working-class club with crumbling facilities and precious little budget, leading them into La Liga and establishing the club against teams that dwarf their resources.
“He will have a successful career in England,” Sansinena says.
“He is fluent in the language, he has a British character, his teams compete very well and I am sure he will adapt quickly.”
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