Last season, Bournemouth were playing in their second consecutive Premier League season in a row after their promotion back to the top flight in the 2021/2022 season. They had Scott Parker at the start of the season, but after four games, he was let go and replaced by Gary O’Neil, who saw off the season and secured safety for the new season.
However, despite his best efforts, he was relieved in a shocking manner during the summer. He wasn’t the only high-profile departure from the Vitality Stadium as Jefferson Lerma left the club as a free agent, as did Junior Stanislas, but perhaps maybe the Cherries should have kept Jordan Zemura after playing 19 Premier League games before joining Udinese.
There’s a new manager after Andoni Iraola was appointed after the shock dismissal of Gary O’Neil. Iraola may be a little unknown for the neutrals, but he’s an Athletic Club legend in La Liga, having played over four hundred games for them.
His managerial career took a good turn, having helped Rayo Vallecano get promoted to La Liga in 2020 from the playoffs while also leading them to a Copa Del Rey semifinal loss to Real Betis last, a development that saw him extend his contract till 2022.
He has been given a bit of reinforcement with Justin Kluivert from AS Roma, Hamed Traore from Sassuolo, Lonut Radu, and Romain Faivre, who will still play in the Ligue 1 next season despite leaving Lyon as he has been loaned back by the Cherries but to Lorient.
Hungarian youngster Milos Kerkez joining from AZ will excite the fans just as Justin Kluivert and both players will likely feature in the Premier League opener at the Vitality Stadium to the UEFA Europa Conference League winners West Ham United.
Expectations for that game on Saturday, 12 August, should be subdued with consideration for the pre-season result that the team got. Pre-season was a mixture of results for Iraola’s side, who got three wins and two losses from 5 games.
The wins were against Hibernian and Lorient, plus a 3-2 win for Bournemouth against relegated Southampton. Bournemouth will face a tough first seven games of the season with Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea, Brighton, and Arsenal in some of their August to September fixtures.
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