AFC Bournemouth’s new head coach Andoni Iraola was accustomed to winning from a young age in the Basque city of San Sebastian.
“The worst thing about growing up with Andoni was that you had to get used to losing at every sport in which he competed,” says his school pal Roberto Bascoy, with whom he’s still friendly.
“He was a winning machine."
In the early 1990s, before his 14-year spell with Athletic Bilbao (pictured below), Iraola was at amateur club Antiguoko.
His team-mates there included FIFA World Cup winner and current Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Athletic Club’s legendary striker Aritz Aduriz.
They learned many of their skills playing on the city’s beautiful, snooker-table flat La Concha beach.
The tide goes out, a wave of kids and parents sprint on, pull out goal frames, mark out pitch lines in the sand with their heels and a dozen or so matches will immediately commence and last several hours.
Then everyone will scramble to stow away the equipment again. Early lessons in teamwork.
Now, if you see him on a Dorset beach, or walking alongside one this summer before AFC Bournemouth’s pre-season begins, you may well glimpse his wife Itziar reprimanding him.
“My wife teases me sometimes when, in the middle of a family stroll, I suddenly reach into the pocket of my jeans for my pen and paper because I’ve just had a good idea,” he admits. "I’m always thinking about the next training session, the next game.”
That thinking has brought big returns.
Giant-killers
You won’t know much, perhaps anything, about Mirandes. They’re a compact little club who’ve spent most of their history in Spain’s third tier and have few scalps to boast of.
But Iraola’s one season in charge began his giant-killing reputation: Los Jabatos (“the young wild boars”) knocked Villarreal and Sevilla out of the Copa del Rey, reaching the semi-finals, where they were beaten by the eventual winners Real Sociedad of Iraola’s native city.
At Rayo Vallecano, his low-budget team consistently beat Real Madrid, Barcelona and Athletic Club, plus Sevilla and Villarreal.
He can explain the phenomenon.
“Playing against elite sides gives you opportunities other teams don’t,” says Iraola. “What you have to do is stay on top of them as they bring the ball out and make them so uncomfortable that you can manoeuvre them into losing the ball.”
Liverpool, due to face Bournemouth in the second weekend of the 2023/24 Premier League season, have been warned.
TV Info
The warning for Iraola’s new players? Pre-season will have a lot of positional tuition.
"The priority is the tactical side of things, particularly our off-the-ball-play,” he’s said previously. “You have to understand what function each player has out of possession and then build from there.
"Working with the ball takes a lot of time and loads of practice, but building from a base of what to do when you’re without the ball will give you a good start.”
Iraola speaks good English, partly because he began his education at an English school in San Sebastian, partly because he’s addicted to North American sport, partly because he lived and played in New York (under Patrick Vieira, who sparked the Spaniard’s desire to coach) and partly because he’s a modern, youthful, intelligent mind.
Being authentic
His squad are in for a treat, as are Cherries fans. Iraola’s a workaholic. He’s a fun, honest, direct, warm character. This will be a test for him, no question. But here’s how he’s going to treat people around him.
He told Relevo recently: “Man management isn’t like tactical knowledge. It’s a much more personal thing.
"As a coach you can’t pretend to be something you’re not because your players will always catch you out. You also can’t get as close to the players as you’d like, because sometimes you have no choice but to play bad cop.
“The key to success is to be as authentic as possible and focus all your energy on helping the team. "
Honest approach
“I couldn’t do my job if I had a queue of players at my door every Monday, looking for a chat.
"Managing people is tough and it’s important to maintain a little bit of distance. Obviously you should never mislead your players, but total honesty is also not always the best policy either.
“If the truth is going to do damage unnecessarily, then it’s better to find a more subtle way to make your point.
“Above all you must never lie to players or mislead them about the role they play in the team. These are intelligent people and they’ll pick up on any attempt to pull the wool over their eyes.”
If you meet Iraola, feel free to greet him: “Kaixo! Zorte on jefe!” (Kai-sho. Zortay-on heffay!). It means: "Hello! Good luck boss!"
He’ll thank you. After which he’ll try to make sure that luck doesn’t come into it.
Graham Hunter (@BumperGraham) is a Spanish football writer, producer and broadcaster.
