{"id":601930,"date":"2026-05-24T20:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T20:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/601930\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T20:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T20:31:08","slug":"bournemouth-andoni-iraola-signs-off-from-cherries-with-european-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/601930\/","title":{"rendered":"Bournemouth: Andoni Iraola signs off from Cherries with European gift"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iraola announced in April he was leaving<\/a> with the Cherries unable to agree a new deal, despite their desire for the 43-year-old to stay.<\/p>\n

Former RB Leipzig manager Marco Rose was revealed as his successor and the man charged with the responsibility to continue the Cherries’ rise.<\/p>\n

After reaching the Europa League Iraola, who was applauded off by the Forest fans, has given his replacement the perfect platform. <\/p>\n

“The Champagne is in the changing room, we were celebrating like we should,” he said, having set a new club record in the Premier League with 57 points. <\/p>\n

“I enjoyed every second with the fans, with the players, it is so nice to finish like this and to have something to celebrate. I have seen a lot of people who have supported me these three years. <\/p>\n

“It’s half term for the kids, I will stay in Bournemouth<\/a> until July. Tomorrow, I will celebrate with the staff, I will go home at least for one week and take my time to make this decision [on what is next].”<\/p>\n

It was not always straightforward for the Cherries this season, though, as they endured a two-month spell of 11 Premier League games without a win between November and January, emerging from it with a 3-2 win against Tottenham<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The loss to Arsenal on 3 January <\/a>left them 15th, seven points adrift of the top six but the Cherries have not lost since. <\/p>\n

They arrived at the City Ground on a club-record 17-game unbeaten run in the top flight having drawn with Manchester City<\/a> on Wednesday. This draw extended the record.<\/p>\n

An 18th draw of the season equals a Premier League record and ensured they did not lose to any of the other 19 clubs in the second half of the campaign.<\/p>\n

“I wanted not to lose today because of this. It’s been so nice, I want to finish it here because you cannot ask for much more,” Iraola added.<\/p>\n

Iraola also did it having been significantly weakened. <\/p>\n

Dean Huijsen went to Real Madrid, Liverpool<\/a> took Milos Kerkez, Illia Zabarnyi went to Paris St-Germain, Dango Ouattara signed for Brentford<\/a> and Manchester City triggered Antoine Semenyo’s \u00a365m release in January.<\/a><\/p>\n

The departures brought in around \u00a3250m which they reinvested in players like Adrien Truffert, Djordje Petrovic and Bafode Diakite \u2013 the most expensive summer buy at \u00a334m<\/a>. Forward Rayan, defender Alex Jimenez and midfielder Alex Toth arrived in January. <\/p>\n

Iraola told Match of the Day: “I have enjoyed this so much and it is not easy. When you go to work with a smile, even in moments where results are maybe not as good, it is more a challenge. <\/p>\n

“The atmosphere in the club is so positive. The club is growing. Now we are getting incredible results, it is good always to work in this kind of environment.<\/p>\n

“I am quite hard but I have been really close [to tears]. I cannot ask for much more. I have been so lucky to be in this moment with this group at players with this club. I think it is the perfect ending and I am so thankful.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iraola announced in April he was leaving with the Cherries unable to agree a new deal, despite their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-601930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}