Gary O'Neil

[red_james]

Some short memories creeping in on this forum. GON was absolutely dire by the time the season ended and most people I reckon wanted him gone. We started quite positively under him yes, but we seemed if anything to get worse the longer he had with the team, and I'm not sure whether we might see something similar at Wolves.

Do people not remember the break for the world cup where we all decided this was where GON would start to be able to implement his "style" on the team, only for us to come back and look even worse?

Iroala definitely has some questions to answer, and maybe is guilty on not being pragmatic enough and taking a slightly more phased approach to implementing his style? But let's not pretend that most of us weren't pretty happy to see GON go and Iraola come in when he did.

 

[billythekid]

Gary O’Neil said in his recent interview he loved his time at Bournemouth.

Then he mentioned he is loving his time at Wolves.

He wasn’t out of work long and now we can say thanks for what he did for us and close his chapter at Dean Court and wish him the best for the future.

 

[DJ]

Gary O’Neil in his first 9 games for Wolves has 11 points.

Gary O’Neil in his first 9 games for AFCB had 10 points.

Gary O’Neil in his first 9 games as permanent manager for AFCB had 5 points.

 

[SlowDownDerek]

I didn’t want Howe to have coaches that weren’t his choice. I wanted him to recognise that different experiences and voices would help him and appoint them himself. I don’t know how many times I can explain that!

Howe didn’t want Hughes at Celtic. That was paper talk. He didn’t like the way it came to an end here and Hughes was part of that. He had the opportunity to take him to Newcastle and didn’t.

I hoped the club would interview someone like Iraola appoint them and support them with a balanced squad yes.

Howe was his own man was he not? Did you just want him to be a different man, in a way that he didn't lose as many games?

Why would Scottish newspapers make up a story about Hughes? I don't think your sources know the half of it Neil. He couldn't get him to Celtic so why could he have got him to Newcastle? He took loads of his other yes men afterall. Somewhere in thos world there's probably a Geordie Neil Dawson who bangs on about how he needs a different assistant.

Why did you dodge the point Neil.... if Iraola is supposedly a specialist in managing with limited resources why does he need a squad tailor made to his style from day one? No manager ever had this and it is extremely unlikely that he had this at Rayo Vallecano.

 

[davidwhitehead]

Gary O’Neil said in his recent interview he loved his time at Bournemouth.

Then he mentioned he is loving his time at Wolves.

He wasn’t out of work long and now we can say thanks for what he did for us and close his chapter at Dean Court and wish him the best for the future.

I think he's handled the whole situation well, acted with dignity, and has an enhanced reputation.

 

[Red Sky]

I don’t get hung about so-called “identity” or varying style with opposition since at the moment most of the teams we played were favourites to win each prem game. Great having an identity on paper but when you play good prem teams you need more.

When I watch afcb, what do I want to see from my head coach:

Did we play good passing football in contrast to a Burnley or Watford type of play?
Yes

Did the team give 100%?
Yes

Did he get the most out of his squad?
Yes

Did try to influence games during the match?
Yes

Did I enjoy spending my hard earned money watching us play?
Yes

Did he keep afcb us in the toughest league in the world?
Yes

Is he an appropriate figurehead for my team, which has been based on good values?
Yes

Was he a sexy media name that would attract international talent?
No

TBH there was enough yes answers for me. I get the strategic rationale for swapping him out, I really do, but only if you get a top proven coach to replace him. Not many of them about and AI always felt like a huge gamble vs what we already had.

Did we play good passing football in contrast to a Burnley or Watford type of play?

In spells. It was certainly better than Parker-ball. Still felt like big parts of games passed us by though.

Did the team give 100%?

Certain players, and in spells- Dom and Christie spring to mind. I've seen other players play better under different managers.

Did he get the most out of his squad?

Absolutely not. He was a work in progress but still far behind the greats like Eddie Howe for getting the most out of a squad.

Did try to influence games during the match?

At times, substitutions sometimes wrong and too late. Tactical changes worked a few times though.

Did I enjoy spending my hard earned money watching us play?

Not every game. Probably as much as the promotion season under Parker but for different reasons. We were promising in spells but made lots of things hard work. The Man City home game was the only one I've ever left early in our history.

Did he keep afcb us in the toughest league in the world?

Yes. This is still the strongest arguement for me. But doesn't really apply to a club with owners who strive for more than staying up.

Is he an appropriate figurehead for my team, which has been based on good values?

Most successful managers are. AI has great values, he's just struggling to translate them to results and performances.

Was he a sexy media name that would attract international talent?

More to do with his experience and philosophy than his name. If he makes a name for himself by continuing to grow as a coach then the international talent will come.

 

[Neil Dawson]

Why did you dodge the point Neil.... if Iraola is supposedly a specialist in managing with limited resources why does he need a squad tailor made to his style from day one? No manager ever had this and it is extremely unlikely that he had this at Rayo Vallecano.

To me it’s an obvious point but as you keep asking…

He took RV over in the second flight built a team and took that team into the top flight. Like Eddies side they developed and learnt together and took that unity, understanding and system into the top flight and developed it further.

If you can’t see the difference between that and having 9 games in a new country, with horrendous fixtures, without your coaching team, with the 50m of signings you need for legs in midfield sat in the treatment room, one quick centre back to play a high line with and wingers that can’t press then you don’t understand the game. Except you do so are probably just obfuscating as usual.

Yes he could adapt, play a low block, sit deep and try and play on the break but if that was the plan they were mad to get rid of O’Neil.

 

[hba1]

What is in the past stays in the past. On Saturday with 11v11 I thought Wolves looked the better organised . GON orchestrated events from the side of the potch AI seems somewhat more subdued. We are what we are, despite considerable misgivings on the scatter gun recruitment sadly not relative to AI's style of play (but what do I know). Work in progress continues let's hope things improve over the coming months.

 

[billythekid]

Gary O’Neil in his first 9 games as permanent manager for AFCB had 5 points.

I see you are going from permanent manager.

Since he took over at the Wolves home game in 2022-23?

He got 10 points in his first 6 games according to soccerbase.

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Bournemouth Football Club results. Forthcoming fixtures & betting odds also available. Courtesy of Soccerbase.com, the Football Betting Site.

www.soccerbase.com

 

[SlowDownDerek]

To me it’s an obvious point but as you keep asking…

He took RV over in the second flight built a team and took that team into the top flight. Like Eddies side they developed and learnt together and took that unity, understanding and system into the top flight and developed it further.

If you can’t see the difference between that and having 9 games in a new country, with horrendous fixtures, without your coaching team, with the 50m of signings you need for legs in midfield sat in the treatment room, one quick centre back to play a high line with and wingers that can’t press then you don’t understand the game. Except you do so are probably just obfuscating as usual.

Yes he could adapt, play a low block, sit deep and try and play on the break but if that was the plan they were mad to get rid of O’Neil.

He needs to do what every other manger in the history of the game has done when they get a new job. Work out how to get results with the players he has then sign the players he needs as the transfer windows go by. Why is this manger any different to anyone else? Nobody gets their ideal squad off the bat.

Btw, it is absolute nonsense to say that the wingers he has can't press. All wingers have to press. Iraola did not invent pressing wingers.

 

[New Old Cherry]

Does anyone other than me think that managers have lucky or unlucky spells....
People say things like "de Zerbi or Emery level"..wtf is a level ...it's all bullsh*t....they will All have crap spells....look back at Mourinho....Hashenhuttl . ...Redknapp even.....
....groups of players will gel or they won't..and at varying times.....a manager can only impart so much ...and not necessarily consistently...
....that applies at Arsenal ...Brechin City....Newport County ..Scunthrop' or Spurs.....

And...fancy exotic foreign names mean absolutely jacksh*t....believe that ...or forever be brainwashed....it's so naive to be shepherded into that fog !
Boscombe fans gotta switch on to whats what...
....sniff some sap at the Kings Park Pine Trees ..that should help....

 

[Kudos]

How can the decision to jettison O'Neil at that point be right in ANY way .. it just doesn't make any f√cking sense... If he had started a new campaign in August and arrived at this point with 3 points ..that would have made lots of sense.

However I dont think taking Iraola out now will make any sense purely because the club hierarchy will cock things up even worse under a pressure of this nature ...by their nature.

I'm seeing the way for this season at least, as Iraola sticking with his way...his principles of nurturing a decent team...but its essentially reliant on 2 or 3 of the players adopting some 'Leadership' in the dressing room and on the field ..without that its f√cked...and relegation will happen.
We are at Crisis Point.....and who knows what's actually going on with the Players !

I think I know but it's too pithy and provocative to detail...been a problem dating back to Howes latter days at the club !

I think the decision was AI was free at the start of the season so you either make the move then or he goes elsewhere. That's the time to stick or twist.

If we stuck with GON and sacked him now we're left a bit floundering similar to how we would be if we sack AI.

 

[Johnny Comelately]

I don’t get hung about so-called “identity” or varying style with opposition since at the moment most of the teams we played were favourites to win each prem game. Great having an identity on paper but when you play good prem teams you need more.

When I watch afcb, what do I want to see from my head coach:

Did we play good passing football in contrast to a Burnley or Watford type of play?
Yes

Did the team give 100%?
Yes

Did he get the most out of his squad?
Yes

Did try to influence games during the match?
Yes

Did I enjoy spending my hard earned money watching us play?
Yes

Did he keep afcb us in the toughest league in the world?
Yes

Is he an appropriate figurehead for my team, which has been based on good values?
Yes

Was he a sexy media name that would attract international talent?
No

TBH there was enough yes answers for me. I get the strategic rationale for swapping him out, I really do, but only if you get a top proven coach to replace him. Not many of them about and AI always felt like a huge gamble vs what we already had.

Tbf you are predisposed to answer yes to all those questions and I think you've been a tad generous.
Did he try to influence games during the match? Yes, but sometimes by making some of the most bizarre substitutions you've ever seen, which didn't work.
Did the team give 100%, well only if you completely ignore the last 4 games and a few others before that.
Did he get the best out of the squad? Well, our very promising LB Zemura left and Anthony was too often played out of position as was Billing. Plus he hardly played Vina and once played Mepham at RB against Zaha, so I'd disagree there.
But he definitely kept Afcb up: W10, D6, L18. So kudos for that and I wish him well.

 

[Neil Dawson]

Btw, it is absolute nonsense to say that the wingers he has can't press. All wingers have to press. Iraola did not invent pressing wingers.

It’s not nonsense. When Klopp takes a squad and puts his gegenpress in he knows there will be good players who can’t do it because they don’t have the aerobic capacity. He knows he will have to let them go as a result.

If what you say is true then every player should be able to press for 90mins like Christie can or like Arter did.

They can’t. Traore could never play in a AI team and now can’t even make the bench of one despite us blowing all that cash on him.

 

[Kudos]

Does anyone other than me think that managers have lucky or unlucky spells....
People say things like "de Zerbi or Emery level"..wtf is a level ...it's all bullsh*t....they will All have crap spells....look back at Mourinho....Hashenhuttl . ...Redknapp even.....
....groups of players will gel or they won't..and at varying times.....a manager can only impart so much ...and not necessarily consistently...
....that applies at Arsenal ...Brechin City....Newport County ..Scunthrop' or Spurs.....

And...fancy exotic foreign names mean absolutely jacksh*t....believe that ...or forever be brainwashed....it's so naive to be shepherded into that fog !
Boscombe fans gotta switch on to whats what...
....sniff some sap at the Kings Park Pine Trees ..that should help....

Yeah managers do have lucky and unlucky spells just like players and every other human.

De Zerbi and Emery have a tactical style which is the zeitgeist at the moment, the artificial transition idea. Basically counter attacking without being attacked first, this is the antidote to gegenpressing because it baits presses and exploits them, in the same way gegenpressing was the antidote to tika taka by forcing tight play and turn overs. And so on. My main fear with AI is that he's a pressing manager at a time when everyone has worked out how best to counter that style.

Mourinho has an effective short term impact but eventually after the two year mark it always falls apart for him. I'd say that's more a pattern than luck.

Hasenhüttl IMO was a cracking manager who had a clear identity with the way he wanted to play but inherited ever more inexperienced players to do it and was forced to be really pragmatic.

Foreign names mean nothing but if you think the rest of the world, where over 99% of the people are have nothing to offer you're a bit of a fool.

 

[Neil Dawson]

Why is this manger any different to anyone else? Nobody gets their ideal squad off the bat.

Not many premier league managers get a side where the defensive midfield options are a) Lewis Cook or b) Gavin Kilkenny. We let Pearson and Lerma go.

Not many championship managers have an option that poor to be fair.

There’s only so much alchemy a manager can do against elite teams.

 

[New Old Cherry]

Yeah managers do have lucky and unlucky spells just like players and every other human.

De Zerbi and Emery have a tactical style which is the zeitgeist at the moment, the artificial transition idea. Basically counter attacking without being attacked first, this is the antidote to gegenpressing because it baits presses and exploits them, in the same way gegenpressing was the antidote to tika taka by forcing tight play and turn overs. And so on. My main fear with AI is that he's a pressing manager at a time when everyone has worked out how best to counter that style.

Mourinho has an effective short term impact but eventually after the two year mark it always falls apart for him. I'd say that's more a pattern than luck.

Hasenhüttl IMO was a cracking manager who had a clear identity with the way he wanted to play but inherited ever more inexperienced players to do it and was forced to be really pragmatic.

Foreign names mean nothing but if you think the rest of the world, where over 99% of the people are have nothing to offer you're a bit of a fool.

Basically then it all boils down to getting to one end of the pitch to score goals...and keeping tight at the back when it's necessary.
Most 'fools' can work that out without applying words like f√cking ' gegenpress' ..'tika - taka' or 'zeitgeist'.

What f√cking twaddle !

O'Neil took 3 points from the Cherries ..he was born in Kent, and talks ' fanaker' . English ffs !

 

[davidwhitehead]

Basically then it all boils down to getting to one end of the pitch to score goals...and keeping tight at the back when it's necessary.
Most 'fools' can work that out without applying words like f√cking ' gegenpress' ..'tika - taka' or 'zeitgeist'.

What f√cking twaddle !

O'Neil took 3 points from the Cherries ..he was born in Kent, and talks ' fanaker' . English ffs !

How many English managers have won the Premier League, Brian ?

 

[SlowDownDerek]

It’s not nonsense. When Klopp takes a squad and puts his gegenpress in he knows there will be good players who can’t do it because they don’t have the aerobic capacity. He knows he will have to let them go as a result.

If what you say is true then every player should be able to press for 90mins like Christie can or like Arter did.

They can’t. Traore could never play in a AI team and now can’t even make the bench of one despite us blowing all that cash on him.

Which of our wingers don't have the aerobic capacity to press? Brooks maybe but I'd say that's harsh.

They don't have to press for 90 minutes, he has built a squat heavy on wingers so they can be replaced in the five sub system, something I think he's done in every game this season.

Traore is definitely a player who looks like he isn't fancied by Iraola. Not perfect but these things happen with new managers. That doesn't prove that the wingers we have are incapable of pressing.

 

[SlowDownDerek]

Not many premier league managers get a side where the defensive midfield options are a) Lewis Cook or b) Gavin Kilkenny. We let Pearson and Lerma go.

Not many championship managers have an option that poor to be fair.

There’s only so much alchemy a manager can do against elite teams.

Let Lerma go? Didn't you accept that there was likely nothing anyone could have done to stop him going? There was no way a contract was going to be signed by either party in the championship and after that he seemed determined to leave.

If he doesn't have the right options he's got to find the right formation. A lot of sides have managed to survive without Jefferson Lerma. Howe's side without him was better than the one with him. If Dan Gosling and Harry Arter can step up I don't see why he can'take it work with the current lot despite the injuries.