WHEN Andoni Iraola failed to win any of his first nine Premier League games as Bournemouth boss, some critics claimed he was on the verge of the sack.
But Cherries chiefs believed in Iraola so much that they considered giving him a new contract to shut the doubters up – and their faith has been justified in spades.
Since Bournemouth lost 2-1 at home to former boss Gary O’Neil and Wolves on October 21, 2023 – with 10 men and to an 88th-minute goal, by the way – their form has been excellent.
Across 39 games, in other words just over a season, they have won 60 points – the sixth-highest total.
Only Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Aston Villa are ahead of them in that table, which means Newcastle, Manchester United and Tottenham are all behind.
The Cherries’ success is a vindication of their early trust in Iraola and the way he and they have transformed the team into one of the most exciting in the Premier League.
Advertisement
And they are continuing to evolve this season.
Statistics show that Bournemouth are developing as an attacking force.
They have generated the fourth most shots, crosses and overall passes into the box, and are joint top for high turnovers leading to shots.
Their goal tally of 13 is a bit off their xG of 16.42.
Advertisement
But the finish by club record signing Evanilson to put them 2-0 up against champions City last weekend suggests Bournemouth are capable of putting the cherry on top of their attacking intensity more often.
And having failed to beat any of last season’s top six in 2023/4, they have won against City and Arsenal, and drawn with Aston Villa, in their last three games.
How has Iraola done it? By all accounts, through the winning combination of being a top coach and a top bloke.
Advertisement
Meet the new Wags of the Premier League season, from a Belgian interior designer to a Portuguese model
To stop afternoon team meetings and video analysis sessions becoming too intense, he breaks them up with outbreaks of fun.
Players enjoy games of football bingo in which a website generates a card with categories like “played under Jose Mourinho” or “won the top flight in England”, and then produces names of players which have to be matched.
Iraola seems to have the full house of qualities you would want in a manager and coach.
On the training ground, ably assisted by coaches Tommy Elphick and Shaun Cooper, he is hands-on and full-on.
Advertisement
He helps lay out the cones and boxes for drills and then takes charge, with balls under his arms and a whistle to his lips.
It’s fair to say Iraola’s methods and style of play were a culture shock in the pre-season of summer 2023.
At least one player confessed he was finding it all too different and too difficult.
Advertisement
But now that same player is one of the top performers.
Although you would expect the mood to be good in the current situation, Iraola’s squad seem genuinely to enjoy the high-intensity, risk-and-reward football he preaches.
The head coach himself also acknowledges the stability and quality of his environment.
Iraola has been given the support he needs, both to weather the early storm and to recruit the kind of players he wants.
The loss of technical director Richard Hughes to Liverpool this year was not a surprise to the club and former captain Simon Francis stepped up to implement successfully a summer spree that had been well planned.
Advertisement
Owner Bill Foley and the board have sanctioned more than £200m of spending since Iraola’s arrival.
Iraola knew how big it was because when he got home, his wife and two children, who didn’t usually get too caught up in football, were well aware of what had happened.
Advertisement
But last weekend after the victory over City, he went back to an empty house because the family were back in Spain for half term.
Family man Iraola is in many ways a very normal guy.
But what he has done in the last year at Bournemouth feels special.
The first CFP rankings were released this week for 2024, and we finally have a look at what a potential 12-team College Football Playoff Bracket might look like come December. Check out everything you need to know about the 2024-25 College Football Playoff Bracket below:
The Algerian, 25, won women’s welterweight gold in Paris this summer a year after being disqualified from the World Championships for reportedly failing gender eligibility tests.
The IBA said Khelif “failed to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in women’s competition”.
The IBA defines a woman, female or girl as “an individual with chromosome XX” and men, males or boys as “an individual with chromosome XY”.
Advertisement
The IOC questioned the legitimacy and credibility of the IBA’s tests, saying they could not be relied upon.
The dispute meant the IOC was responsible for running the boxing competition at the Paris Olympics and applied less stringent eligibility criteria.
Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who was also banned by the IBA, were both cleared to compete at the Olympics by the IOC.
A chaotic news conference held subsequently by the IBA did little to clear the confusion around Khelif and Lin’s bans.
Advertisement
Chief executive Chris Roberts said the pair had “chromosome tests”, while president Umar Kremlev appeared to suggest the tests determined the fighters’ testosterone levels.
The BBC has been unable to determine what the eligibility tests consisted of.
Carini later apologised to Khelif, saying she was ‘sorry’ for the backlash the Algerian received after the fight.
Advertisement
Speaking after her Olympic victory, Khelif said she had been a victim of “bullying” and that the IBA “hate me”.
“I am fully qualified to take part in this competition. I am a woman like any other woman,” said Khelif.
“I was born a woman. I have lived as a woman. I competed as a woman – there is no doubt about that.”
“All the athletes who participated in the boxing tournament at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 complied with the competition’s eligibility and entry regulations, together with all the applicable medical regulations enacted by the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit (PBU). As with previous Olympic boxing competitions, the gender and age of the athletes were based on their passport details,” the IOC added.
Advertisement
BBC Sport has contacted Khelif’s representatives for comment.
Donald Trump will become the 47th U.S. president after defeating Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election Wednesday morning.
UFC President Dana White was at Trump’s victory celebration overnight at Mar-a-Lago and spoke to the crowd about his good friend heading to the Oval Office again.
Here’s how the pros reacted to Donald Trump winning again:
Agree! He is an animal. Would love to see the comparison of how many more appearances, interviews and rallies trump had vs Kamala. https://t.co/YTlCfSdszu
The woke agenda is dead! Mainstream media is dead! The American Dream is ALIVE!!! God Bless America and God Bless the 47th President of The United States of America: Donald J Trump!!! #Election2024
Congratulations to the 47th president of the United States of America @realDonaldTrump. Against all odds, this man overcame so much adversity to get to this 2nd term. He’s a fighter and he’s going to fight for us for the next 4 years. It’s time to Make America Great Again! pic.twitter.com/htHXVvt3SH
CRYSTAL PALACE are targeting a £20million-plus for Sunderland’s teenage sensation Chris Rigg.
The 17-year-old midfielder has established himself as a regular starter for Sunderland this season after becoming the second-youngest player in the club’s history whilst still at school last year.
Palace have watched Rigg play for the Black Cats several times this season.
The teenager has impressed for the promotion chasers, bagging three goals in 12 games.
And Palace sporting director Dougie Freedman is convinced he will prove good enough for the Premier League.
The London club could even make a move in January, as they did last season in signing Adam Wharton from Blackburn for £18m.
Advertisement
The 20-year-old made such an impact at Palace that he was named in the England squad for last summer’s European Championship.
He made 21 appearances last term and has been with the Black Cats since he was at primary school.
Rigg is under contract at the Stadium of Light until the summer of 2027.
Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner had expected a better start to the season
After signing the new deal, he beamed: “I want to develop as a player and improve as a person.
Advertisement
“And I believe this is the best place for me to do that.”
The Black Cats have been the surprise package of the Championship season so far under new French manager Regis Le Bris.
They are currently top of the table, ahead of chasing pack Sheffield United, Leeds and Burnley.
Failure to win promotion this season however could lead to Sunderland seeking to cash in on Rigg next summer, when he will have just two years left on his deal.
“He’s asking for Dustin Poirier. That would be absolutely fantastic, but is there a better way to introduce Max Holloway into the lightweight division?” Cormier said on “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Chael Sonnen. “Do we put him in there with a Dustin for a third time? Or do we see what happens with Michael Chandler after he fights against Charles Oliveira? Or do we start to kind of look down the rankings a little bit and say, ‘Well, it would be fun to watch him fight a Rafael Fiziev. It would be fun to watch him fight a Benoit Saint Denis. It would be fun to watch him fight a Paddy Pimblett.’
Advertisement
“I know that might not be fun for Max, that might not be great for Max, but it would also give him an opportunity to work his way back into contention without being in there with these absolute killers. Personally, I would like to see Max Holloway not stand across from Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje. Alexander Volkanovski then Ilia Topuria, something not as crazy of a challenge.”
Holloway’s first stint at lightweight in the UFC ended in a lopsided decision loss to Poirier for the interim title in April 2019. But after finishing Gaethje to claim the BMF title in April, Holloway finds himself at No. 5 in the UFC lightweight rankings.
Be sure to visit the MMA Junkie Instagram page and YouTube channel to discuss this and more content with fans of mixed martial arts.
The peculiarity of the free tyre change that is allowed under Formula 1’s red flag rules has long been a source of frustration to drivers.
When the situation crops up, like it did in Brazil last weekend and at the Monaco GP in May, those who are caught on the wrong side of things bemoan the sheer randomness of it.
In Monaco, it was all about how the hard compound starters were compromised by the first-lap red flag that allowed all the medium runners a free switch to the hard.
At Interlagos, George Russell, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc were all left ruing what they had lost by switching to fresh inters as worsening rain arrived, while those that carried on in tricky conditions got a free tyre change after Franco Colapinto’s huge crash.
Advertisement
The apparent luck of the draw is something that time and again gets criticised, and yet no one has come up with the fairer solution.
Back at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Norris was running sixth early on when he made a stop under safety car conditions for Mick Schumacher’s accident – which dropped him to 14th.
In theory, it was about playing the long game as those ahead of him that did not stop would need to do so under full race conditions later on – so lose more time.
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, makes a pit stop
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Advertisement
However, his plan fell flat when a red flag was brought out, which handed everyone ahead of him a free stop and left the Briton stuck down the order.
Speaking afterwards, his criticisms of things were similar to what he said on Sunday night after Brazil.
“Of course, I’m always on the bad end of it, so it probably sucks more for me than anyone, but I think it’s just a very unfair rule that should be taken away,” he said.
“I think they should change it to one mandatory pit stop with two different tyre sets needed to be used, and then I think that’s acceptable.
Advertisement
“But this just ruins everything, to be honest. You put so much effort in for it to be taken away for some stupid rule.”
But while the unfairness aspect is the thing that annoys drivers the most, last weekend’s race at Interlagos has put into focus another factor that is slightly more worrying.
It is that in a wet race like Interlagos where conditions are worsening and there is the potential for a red flag, drivers are almost encouraged to stay out on far-from-perfect rubber much longer than they ideally would.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who stopped under the VSC conditions triggered by Nico Hulkenberg’s off, said that the rain that was coming down had left the track treacherous – but the lead cars obviously felt it worth the risk of staying out.
Advertisement
“I don’t think we expected it to rain as much as it did and then honestly, the toughest part of the race was behind the safety car, trying to stay on the track,” said the Australian.
“I think it kind of exposed a bit of the issue we have with the wet tyre – when everyone is begging for a red flag but refusing to go onto the wet tyre because it’s so bad.
“A pretty dangerous situation to have cars literally struggling to stay on the track behind the safety car. But it’s not really anything new. Hopefully, we can try to at least change it now.”
Esteban Ocon, Alpine A524, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, at the restart
Photo by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Images
Advertisement
Race winner Max Verstappen, whose victory was made easier by the red flag situation, admitted that things were right on the knife edge as he stayed out – but there was no way he was going to stop.
“When some pitted, the rain was coming, we stayed out, which was very sketchy,” explained the Dutchman.
“And then I saw Esteban [Ocon] in front of me flying, like four seconds a lap faster and I was like, ‘I’m just happy to keep the car on the track’.
“At one point it was just, we need a red flag. It was just undriveable, even on extreme tyres.”
Advertisement
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur, who had pitted Leclerc early but had dropped him into traffic, conceded that the issue teams face is gambling on staying out and not crashing.
“For sure you can say at the end of the day, if you stay on track, waiting for the red flag, it is the right call,” he said. “But if you crash, you look stupid…”
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said that, with conditions worsening, there was a safety aspect to the situation – and that while there were competitive gains to be had by staying out and hoping for a red flag, in his mind there was only one course of action he preferred.
Speaking about the Brazil podium finishers who all stayed out, Stella said: “I am here congratulating them on their decisions.
Advertisement
“But personally, I am not very comfortable to leave a car out there that has tyres that are pretty worn with that amount of water. Without the red flag we would be commenting on a different race.”
The way to stop drivers from taking the gamble and pushing on with unsuitable tyres would theoretically be solved by not allowing the free tyre change that is allowed in the regulations.
If drivers knew that a red flag would not allow them a free swap, then decisions on which tyre to commit to would be based purely on which is most suitable to the conditions – and not so much about gambling in sticking it out when conditions are too dire in the hope of being saved by a stoppage.
But the red flag rules are in place for safety reasons and not competitive ones. It has long been accepted that changing tyres has to be allowed under red flag conditions because of the risk of debris from accidents causing punctures or other issues.
Advertisement
Forcing drivers to stick to their current tyres when there is a chance they could have run over broken carbon fibre of other parts on the track, or been involved in an accident themselves, would be an incredible safety risk and lunacy to have in the rules.
There have, however, been numerous suggestions in the past of ways to potentially improve things and make them fairer.
One idea, that would best work for dry races to avoid the potential for a free stop, would be to allow teams to change tyres in the stops – but if they wanted to it would have to be for the same compound.
This scenario would prevent what happened in Monaco, and also ensure that drivers who had stopped to switch compounds under full race conditions were not unfairly punished.
Advertisement
Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team VCARB 01, makes a pit stop
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
However, it would not have avoided penalising drivers in Brazil because the inter is ultimately the best tyre for the rain – because by the time the full wet is brought into action, normally visibility is so bad that racing does not take place.
Another idea could be to allow the teams the option to change tyres if they are damaged, but if they do so they have to pull themselves out of the race order and drop to the back.
That way, there would not be an incentive to stay out longer than necessary in tricky conditions – because ultimately if there is a red flag the disadvantage could be greater if you need to change rubber. And if you feel you are still on the right tyres, you can keep them on and take your stop later.
Advertisement
Or what about Norris’s suggestion after Saudi 2021, of tweaking the sporting rules to demand that each driver makes a mandatory stop under normal race conditions, irrespective of a red flag?
All these ideas are things that have been discussed, and drivers have their own opinions about what can be done to make it better – but unfortunately, F1 has never moved things forward much.
Asked after Monaco whether he had some hope of the red flag tyre rule being revisited by teams and the FIA, he said: “I don’t know. There are many things that they have not changed, probably because they don’t listen to the drivers.”
You must be logged in to post a comment Login