Andoni Iraola has revealed that Newcastle United supervisor Eddie Howe despatched him an excellent luck message when he took over Bournemouth in the beginning of the 2023/24 season.
Howe managed Bournemouth extraordinarily efficiently over two spells between 2008 and 2020, serving to the Cherries survive in League Two earlier than reaching the Premier League.
Iraola, in the meantime, has recognized about Bournemouth for years. Whereas nonetheless Rayo Vallecano boss, he took Eddie Howe out for dinner not lengthy after the latter had left the Vitality Stadium, following their relegation in 2020. The previous Cherries chief had hung out shadowing Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid and stayed an additional week within the Spanish capital with Iraola at Vallecas, as a part of a peripatetic European tour.
Andoni Iraola reveals messages with Eddie Howe after being appointed Bournemouth supervisor
“We had a extremely good expertise,” Iraola tells FourFourTwo. “I already knew him from Bournemouth earlier than. They have been an excellent reference for us at Rayo due to the creativity and their set items – it’s very nice while you’re coaching to have the possibility to talk to different managers.”
Howe did supply the Spaniard properly needs when appointed Bournemouth supervisor in the summertime of 2023, although stopped in need of giving him any recommendation – they’d be rivals that season, in spite of everything.
“He texted me and wished me all the most effective, however we didn’t speak an excessive amount of,” Iraola reveals. “He was already at Newcastle, and while you’re a coach at one other membership, you don’t textual content one another usually!”
They might be rivals now, however it’s exhausting to flee reminders of Howe’s excellent achievements at Bournemouth. The Steve Fletcher Stand serves as testomony to the trendy roots of the membership, named after the person who scored the purpose that stored the Cherries within the Soccer League in 2009, early in Howe’s first spell as supervisor.
“I hear about it day by day,” Iraola says. “I work with Steve, Tommy Elphick, Shaun Cooper – they have been at Bournemouth as gamers for years and each time we go to a brand new stadium or play a pleasant, they’ve tales about elements of the membership I didn’t know.
“After I first arrived, I attempted to study as a lot as I may in regards to the membership’s historical past. Followers keep in mind this stuff 15, 20 years in the past when the membership was in bother, and it’s good to contribute and be a small a part of the story while you’re within the Premier League.”
Issues have gone extraordinarily properly for Iraola, too, with Bournemouth attaining their best-ever factors complete final season, with 48. They’re on track to interrupt that in 2024/25, although there have been preliminary teething issues final time period that he needed to overcome.
In implementing tactical modifications, Iraola typically requested gamers do unfamiliar issues, however making it look like no massive deal.
“The calls for of each supervisor change and the calls for of each place in any tactical setup are completely different,” Iraola explains. “You could be an excellent winger in a sure system, however for our system it might be completely different.”
Winger-turned-ball-winner, Ryan Christie is a living proof. “He had the physicality, the tactical understanding, the standard on the ball to be a No.8. With Dango [Ouattara], we thought he might be comfy at full-back – even Lewis [Cook], he used to play increased however now he’s extra comfy as a defensive midfielder and is taking part in very properly.”
Unsurprisingly, gamers took time to seek out their ft. The epiphany would come, nonetheless, in opposition to former Bournemouth supervisor, Eddie Howe.
“The sport when the whole lot modified was Newcastle at residence,” Iraola provides. “We beat them 2-0, performed rather well and contemplating the opposition, it was the primary sport by which we had a whole efficiency. Every thing began going our manner after that.”
