The dust has now settled on AFC Bournemouth’s announcement last week that Gary O’Neil has become the Cherries permanent new head coach.
The appointment came almost 13 weeks after AFC Bournemouth and former head coach Scott Parker parted company.
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 Dean Court faithful will never know who else was in contention for the role, but after 12 games in all competitions in temporary charge with 4 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses, the Cherries heirachy deemed that O’Neil had done enough to get the job full-time.
Is O'Neil the right appointment?Yes
No
Not sure
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But how did some of the supporters react?
NWCherries98 wrote…
I’m “whelmed” by this seeming appointment. I like O’Neil, hopefully, he’s learned from his mistakes in the middle portion of his tenure. I also think the wins against Everton were good but perhaps a false dawn considering how poor Everton were.
Have to say whoever’s decision it was to go all in on Bielsa, it was a moronic one. Personally, I don’t think he would’ve worked for us; the thing we actually need right now is stability because scoring goals isn’t the problem many of us thought it would be at present. It’s our switching off at set pieces and winning positions, reminiscent of the last PL era. Bielsa is also famous for not joining clubs midseason and is incredibly meticulous, dare I say “anal”, about what he expects. If we weren’t going to go all in and give him what he wants, why even bother approaching him?
We’ve targeted a manager who in my opinion:
1. Doesn’t suit our squad in a few key areas, and doesn’t address any of the issues we have.
2. Doesn’t join clubs midseason.
3. Takes months and months to get the players playing how he wants. We don’t have months and months.
I’m not in any camp, I’m just calling it how I see it. Outside looking in this looks like a very shoddy job. There must be a manager out there in the world, in a job or not, that would fit in well at the club. If they really thought O’Neil was up to it, and wholeheartedly believed in him, then they should have appointed him ages ago. I would’ve respected that more tbh. Kinda just feels like we dumped the steady 6/10 to chase after the South American model, got rejected, and slinked back to settle with what we have. Looks very amateurish to me.
If we thought Bielsa was a better person for the job than O’Neil, then the board have ended up with their seemingly clear second choice (especially the way it’s dragged on). I would’ve liked there to have seemed like there was a bit more of a plan in place for Parker not working out. It feels like we’ve gone out to a restaurant for a nice meal, found out the dish we initially wanted is out of stock and gone home for a microwave dinner rather than just…keep looking at the menu. Football is a big menu. It’s not just “the one guy we looked at and our own coaches”. Was there not even like an informal shortlist of potential names to target? A handful of potential appointments?
Again it’s not necessarily an end result that I dislike. I like how O’Neil approaches games, and his initial tactical setups seem like they work. If he gets in a good defensive coach and gets the players to see out games a bit more confidently, then tbh I think we do stay up.
SteveJonesLegend said…
I’ve never believed GON to be the right choice, for many reasons, however, if this goes ahead, at least it is sorted and we can get behind him fully… Hopefully, he’ll bring in more experience to support him and Coops/Elphick can go back to the dev squad and develop themselves as well…
The fact that this is looking like an ‘initial’ 18 months, shows there is a degree of caution there which is at least something I guess… It also keeps one eye on the prospect of relegation as GON will be more than suitable 1 league down and we won’t have some high-profile manager jumping ship in 8 months…
Everywhere you read and listen, the footballing World is contradicting my thoughts in that they believe GON has done more than enough to get the job… I just hope we’ve not been seduced by the ‘2 wins over Everton’ week…
kirsikka added…
I remember when Max arrived and we finally had money to spend. I was excited to see who we bought now we could lash the cash. Then feeling massively let down when we blew £800k on the twice previously released Matt Tubbs. That went well.
After hoping the Foley era would see a new approach I was pleasantly surprised they were in advanced talks with Bielsa. Not that I was convinced he was the best man for the job, but it seemed to signify things would now be different.
Kind of left feeling like it’s Tubbs time again. And that’s a comment on our recruitment process, not on GON.
Still, if he’s the man then I’ll back him. He’s had some good moments and some poor ones. The history of PL caretaker managers stepping up isn’t littered with glory but fingers crossed he bucks the trend.
thegazzyb said…
He’s been given the job. The fact that he turned Luton down a couple of weeks ago was telling. I suspect we are just waiting for the sale to Foley to be ratified and then the contract will be signed and officially announced.
GO already knows that he’s got the job when he gets back, I’m sure of it.
Personally, I think it’s for the best, under current circumstances.
We have the best chance of a decent restart if we maintain the same setup.
We can’t afford another post-COVID restart this season, so under these circumstances, I think changing the manager would be a massive risk right now.
I think we might still be looking for a “statement of intent” appointment in the summer if we can maintain PL status, which would be harsh on GO but that is the way of the world, unfortunately. But he has this season to do enough to secure his next job, which is a decent opportunity for GO himself.
Kudos wrote…
I think it’s quite a complex topic and the backroom stuff shifts perspective on it.
From the perspective of Max can’t afford to bankroll the team, we’re investing in facilities and we’re going to make a fist of staying up Gary O’Neil is genuinely a revelation. Out of nowhere, we have a character who can with no real additional outlay on wages give us a chance of staying up.
From the perspective of hiring a manager, thrice we’ve looked externally, thrice it’s come to nothing and thrice after huge delays we’ve gone back to the caretaker and offered them the job. Arguably Parker was a successful appointment but other than Eddie Howe it doesn’t feel like any of the others were up to much as far back as Quinn when Blake was appointed. Parker, aside it’s been Howe’s assistant, to Howe’s assistant’s assistant, to Howe’s assistant’s assistant’s assistant.
From the perspective of a takeover and elevating the club. I see our current status sans Howe and Max being on par with say Huddersfield, Norwich or Middlesborough,i.e. a team that can have Premier League spells but is realistically fighting for survival every season) to potentially be more a Palace, West Ham or pre-Saudi Newcastle, i.e. a team that can still be realistically relegated but can also dream of European football. Having a manager respected worldwide who fits our footballing culture feels like there is some longer-term strategy so there’s obviously going to be some disappointment after finding out that isn’t going to happen.
The latter two of the three points despite appearances don’t necessarily mean I think that GON is incapable of doing a good job as a manager it’s just an observation of past problems with manager recruitment and frustration that we’re still treading water regarding the takeover. – To join the conversation, click here.
