aDespite a disappointing start, Andoni Iraola has enjoyed an eye-catching first season in the Premier League, leading Bournemouth to their highest point total in the division and ensuring a top-half finish is possible heading into the final day. It has increased. His breathtaking, aggressive style impressed a dynamic team, earning him a manager of the season nomination and a new contract. As he approaches his first anniversary in office next month, as an avid cyclist his biggest complaint is the lack of hills in Dorset. “The longest is 200 meters,” he says with a smile, raising his right hand and letting it drop. “The moment it starts moving, it stops.”
Raised in the Basque Country, Spain’s cycling capital, Iraola has long been fascinated by the endurance and precision that are at the heart of competition on two wheels. Last summer, during pre-season in Marbella, he was fixated on the Tour de France over dinner, but his playing days were no different, spending most of his time at his boyhood club Athletic Bilbao, and in 2011. He was captain under manager Marcelo Bielsa and reached the Europa League final. -12. Since then, the pressure has changed.
“I enjoy it a little bit more as a coach than as a player,” he says. “I played [almost] I spent my entire career at Athletic – it was my club – and I probably gave too much importance to everything, every detail, every performance. I felt very responsible. I think I suffer a little less now because I understand better that we don’t matter that much. ”
This week, at the end of days spent preparing for Sunday’s game against Chelsea, he sought to catch up with the Giro d’Italia. “[Tadej] As expected, Pogačar is destroying everyone,” he says. “I love this sport and it is also a tradition in the Basque Country. Everyone travels to watch the different stages of the Tour, the Vuelta. [a España]; I’m trying to imitate the itzria I have at home. ”
For Iraola, 41, cycling is also a treasure trove of interesting things in terms of cross-pollination. “I think there are a lot of sports where they’re ahead of us in certain areas and we can have an advantage,” he says, citing basketball and the NFL as examples. He knows some of the staff at Euskaltel Euskadi, the Basque cycling team famous for their orange tops, and was the team principal and CEO of UAE team Emirates in an interview when he was a player in Bilbao. He became acquainted with Mauro Giannetti after he declared him his favorite cyclist. Mr. Jannetty then contacted Mr. Iraola, presented him with a uniform from Saunier Duval-Prodil, the team he was managing at the time, and introduced him to Matosin Josean Fernandes, the coach of Pogacar’s UAE team.
Connecting with people at the forefront of elite sport has led to some interesting conversations. “We like to share things and share the methodologies and processes that they use and show them to the players,” Iraola says. “For example, discipline in cycling is very important…body fat, training, kilometers [ridden], everything is done very carefully to find the peak of form during the season. This is particularly interesting in terms of sports science. As a soccer player, and thinking back to when I was a soccer player, we don’t pay attention to the details that much. [looking] What to eat, how many hours to sleep, etc. I like this process. ”
Bournemouth, like many clubs, monitor body fat and impose small fines if players are overweight. We also emphasize the repetition of high-intensity efforts and the speed of the athlete’s reactions. No wonder, then, that only Everton have recovered more loose balls in the league this season. These could be details taken straight from Bielsa’s playbook.
“If you want to attack spaces, press aggressively. You don’t give your players too much time to rest, and it was the same with Marcelo,” Iraola said. “I played with him for two seasons and he was very demanding. You can only get there if you train the same way and everyone takes it seriously. We need players who buy into the idea and we feel we have it.”
The only member of staff to follow Iraola to Bournemouth was fitness coach Pablo de la Torre, with whom he worked in his first managerial post at AEK Larnaca and Rayo Vallecano, before Iraola left for England. How important is athleticism in implementing his style? “We’re trying to play with a fast rhythm, so that’s important. We don’t want the game to be stopped and we don’t have time to recover.” always says, “When you’re tired, you have to ask for the ball.” Anyone can do this if they ask for the ball again or wait for a break before running into space. Masu. But you’re a Premier League player and if you’re tired and your opponent is tired too, that’s the moment you have to push them and try to break them down. To do that, you have to be in the best physical condition. ”
When Iraola was informed that he had been named manager of the season, he reacted in his office by raising the issue with Unai Emery, and he is doing the same here. “I’m very proud to be in the same place as Mikel.” [Arteta]Unai, Pep [Guardiola], Jurgen Klopp… There are obviously managers who are better than me, and I think it’s good that other clubs outside of the top four also receive this kind of recognition,” he says. “Sean Dyche and Gary O’Neill are not in contention for a place in Europe, but they’ve had good seasons and I think it’s good for the league to recognize other clubs. But for me, Unai has to win. He has been really good since coming to Aston Villa. He has improved the team and they are very close to the European finals and it would be huge for Villa to qualify for the Champions League. It’s an achievement.”
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Iraora, who gave up his law degree to become a professional soccer player and read all of Haruki Murakami’s works, is a warm, charming, and unassuming person. Several times he has made fun of the merits of his playing career, which started with Arteta and Xabi Alonso at La Concha Beach in San Sebastian and then with local youth team Antiguoco. That’s what I played. He ended his time in Manhattan and played in the midfield for New York City coach Patrick Vieira, giving Iraola an opportunity to think about management. “He’s number three in midfield, playing behind.” [Andrea] with Pirlo [Frank] Lampard…he struggled when he didn’t have the ball because he didn’t have the legs, but tactically he could do a lot with the ball in MLS. ”
he laughed. Despite a tough end to the season, it’s clear Iraola is enjoying life in the dugout he’s settled on the south coast. He visited the New Forest with his wife, 9-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, and took the Sandbanks ferry to Swanage to explore the scenery just around the corner from his home. A contract extension through 2026, after billionaire owner Bill Foley began negotiations two weeks ago, speaks to the little-known value of faith in the formula. Richard Hughes, Bournemouth’s outgoing technical director who will join Liverpool next month, has done his homework on how Iraola’s teams have played historically and his front-foot philosophy.
Bournemouth were without a win in the league until October last year, but their late start has led Iraola to exaggerate his methods. “In Spain we were a very attacking, high-pressing team, but the standards here are so high that we had to be even more aggressive. Every team tries to collect the ball as high as possible. We’ve had to step up our message, take more risks and play higher, otherwise we can’t really make a difference. I don’t feel very comfortable when I’m on the bench and we’re all in the low block and it’s very compact and there are 10 players behind the ball.
Despite starting the league season without a win in nine consecutive games, no one, including Iraola, panicked. The staff speaks of a character who has unwavering belief in his formula. “I’m used to updating at the end of every year: ‘You’re happy, I’m happy, ok, let’s keep going,'” he says. “We don’t want any team to make a decision to continue playing just because we have a contract. No, it’s because we truly believe it’s the best thing to do from both sides. Player I have to thank them because they continued to believe in what we were doing. There was never a time when they wanted to play differently.”
