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Bournemouth owner explains why the decision to sack Gary O’Neil

AFC Bournemouth owner Bill Foley explains to talkSPORT why he made the decision to sack head coach Gary O’Neil last week.

Simon Jordan, Jim White and Stuart Pearce decided to debate Bill Foley’s outlook for Bournemouth while reacting to his reasons for replacing Gary O’Neil.

O’Neil was axed last Monday, and immediately replaced by Spanish coach Andoni Iraola in a shock decision that had fans baffled.

While the Cherries avoided the drop in the Premier League last season, and while having one of the smaller squads in the division, they did however lose the last four games, and scored just one goal. O’Neil felt confident though that the slump would not have continued next season.

The Mirror claimed that he was shocked to hear that he had been axed at 6am, having spent Sunday preparing pre-season and watching videos of potential players when he received the call to tell him his services were no longer required.

He said: “I’m a big fan of Gary O’Neil. We put him in the position last November to give him the opportunity to be the head coach and he did deliver after starts and stops in January.

“The team started building momentum. It really wasn’t so much about Gary not doing what he was asked to do, it was more about the opportunity to give our football club a different identity through the coach we made contact with some time ago and then initiated contact very recently.

“He was enthusiastic about coaching in the Premier League and we thought this was a situation we had to avail ourselves of. It was not so much about Gary not delivering.

“I like Gary and he’s going to land on his feet. He’s coming out with a CV showing he kept a team from being relegated and kept a team in the Premier League.

“I believe he’s going to be in coaching for a long time and is going to do a good job. We had to make a difficult decision and we weren’t happy to do it, but felt we had to do it for the benefit of the team. The team comes first.

“That’s really the long and short of it. It wasn’t about Gary, it was about a different opportunity.

“We just felt that to be as successful as we believe we can be in the transfer market and we are going to change the style of football that we played, then we needed to go a different direction.

“I don’t feel good about it, I don’t feel happy about having someone move on from a position within our club.

“It was not just my decision, it was a decision made by football management and we all separately came to the same conclusion.

“So it was a unanimous decision amongst us all and I don’t want to be viewed as one of these owners that fires people and goes on and fires them again.

“That is not our plan. Our plan is to go with this coach and give him every opportunity to be successful.

“If it means that we are relegated at the end of the season because of a mistake, then I will live with it. That is reality.”

“I believe we are going to be successful with Andoni, I really do. I don’t know LaLiga and I don’t know the coaches in LaLiga but our football staff have been aware of him.

“We were looking for a coach last fall and we went with Gary, we felt that stability was the best thing for us at the time.

“He was one of the coaches that rose to the top in terms of people that we were thinking about.

“We didn’t make formal contact last fall but the football side has kept in touch with him over the last six months or so.

“His contract ran out and he was available and receiving multiple offers from significant clubs.

“We just felt that if we were going to do something, now is the time to do it. Do it before pre-season, have a new coach come in with a new system and get a chance to work with the players.”

This is what fans are saying as the Bournemouth owner explains why the decision to sack Gary O’Neil…

@CJAFCB: #afcb Another impressive interview from Bill. He just seems to get it. Ambitious and hugely driven yes but with realistic expectations about how difficult it might be and how long it may take. Exciting times like ahead.

@hithisiswes:…@talkSPORT @Sjopinion10 @JimWhite Foley has previously declared why he bought #afcb . He had opportunities to invest in other clubs as a part owner, but wants to be a single owner. As mentioned in the interview, he’s a builder and sees the opportunity to build within the PL

@JoshWyattJ: What a man!

@CherriesAbbie: Foley came across very well, I thought. Measured and respectful whilst drumming up excitement for the future! 🥁 #afcb

@Megaprikibalz: @JimWhite I like how Bill Foley calls it football. He knows what football is in America but he respects the sport enough to call it Football not Soccer. @talkSPORT

@AFCBMackie: He just gets it

@HarryfromTTP: Just listened to the foley interview. As we we’re with Maxim, we’re very very lucky. It’s hard not to be excited for the future of #afcb

@Melanha: I love Bill’s transparency and how he manages to dedicate time for AFCB, when he has so many other ongoing business activites.

@MattNashMedia: I like the sound of @afcbournemouth owner Bill Foley on @talkSPORT – a lot of substance there, seemed a realist. Only question I’d have is over the ‘ups and downs’ O’Neil had. No one expects #Bournemouth to win every week so what will happen if Iraola loses 4/5 in a row? But aside from that, plenty for @afcbournemouth fans to be optimistic about from what Foley said, on progress on the pitch, future stadium and training ground. A lot of sense there, now we wait and see what the highly-anticipated Andoni Iraola era can bring to #AFCB

@alex_crook: Bill Foley hitting just the right tone. Respectful to what Gary O’Neil did for #AFCB while explaining the reasoning behind the Iraolo hire. Says challenging for Europe is the club’s long-term aim and predicts a busy summer transfer window.

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