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Is O’Neil the right appointment on a permanent basis?

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On Sunday (27th November), AFC Bournemouth announced that Gary O’Neil would be the Cherries new permanent head coach.

AFC Bournemouth confirmed that the 39-year-old had signed “an initial one-and-a-half year contract which has the provision to be extended for a further 12 months”, the Cherries also confirmed that O’Neil’s “full coaching setup will be confirmed in the coming weeks”.

The decision comes almost 13 weeks after AFC Bournemouth and former head coach Scott Parker parted company.

During that time, O’Neil has acted as AFC Bournemouth interim head coach, assisted by former AFC Bournemouth players Shaun Cooper and Tommy Elphick.

Following on from Scott Parker’s record of one win and three heavy losses (4-0 to Manchester City, 3-0 to Arsenal and 9-0 to Liverpool), the Cherries headed into a somewhat easier run of games, in the context of England’s top division.

The Cherries went six games unbeaten, with victories over Nottingham Forest and Leicester City and draws with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Newcastle United, Brentford and Fulham.

However, with AFC Bournemouth on the brink of their longest-ever unbeaten run in the top flight of English football, the Cherries lost their next four games on the spin to Southampton, West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur and Leeds United.

It had looked like O’Neil’s chance had gone, but two games in five days against Everton turned the feeling around at Dean Court, a 4-1 victory in the Football League Cup followed by a 3-0 rout in the Premier League had the AFC Bournemouth fans singing for O’Neil, thanking him for his efforts, not knowing if this would be the last time they would see him in the dugout due to the break in the season for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

It turns out that it wasn’t.

O’Neil becomes the Cherries third internal appointment as head coach in just over two years following Eddie Howe’s departure in August 2020.

The first was Eddie Howe’s long-term assistant Jason Tindall in August 2020, however, he lasted just six months.

Despite only being with the Cherries for 48 hours, AFC Bournemouth installed Jonathan Woodgate as caretaker manager and 18 days later, was given the role on a permanet basis until the end-of-the-season.

It was during this period that Gary O’Neil joined the backroom staff at AFC Bournemouth, O’Neil initially worked under both Woodgate and Stephen Purches, before then fitting into Scott Parker’s coaching staff.

Is O'Neil the right appointment?

Yes

Yes

No

No

Not sure

Not sure

AFC Bournemouth chief executive Neill Blake told afcb.co.uk

“Gary did an excellent job on an interim basis and the board are delighted to make his position as head coach permanent.

“We have been impressed with the way he has conducted himself from the moment he joined the club and feel he has earned this opportunity to continue to take the team and the club forward.

“Gary has worked tirelessly and diligently on the training pitch and the players have responded by producing some excellent performances and results.

“It was evident from the reception he received from our supporters following the Premier League win against Everton that they have also appreciated his efforts and we are all looking forward to continuing our working relationship with him.”

Your say…

thegazzyb wrote…

I’d say this is the safest appointment we could make, given the situation with the interrupted season. It gives us consistency. The players are back training in the same way with the same coaches. That gives us a fighting chance of restarting the season in the right way. We really need to be on it when we come back because we don’t have much of a safety margin. Mid-season is not really the time for the players to have to learn the ways of a new coaching staff, learn new roles, new systems. All games we play from here on in count for something.

The summer would be the time to introduce a new manager and coaching team, if you are going to do it at all. That way you get plenty of preseason friendlies to iron the bugs out and set the course for the new season.

Given how difficult and detailed contract negotiations with Bielsa are known to be, it’s not inconceivable that discussions are continuing in the background with a view to reaching an agreement by the summer.
I’m not saying that’s what I want, I think that would be harsh on GO who deserves 100% backing by the board, but maybe there was just not enough time to get the Bielsa deal over the line at this point in time.

Appointing GO permanently does seem to be a shrewd business decision IMO, given the unusual circumstances of this interrupted season. Any other appointment would have been much riskier. – Join the conversation, click here.

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