Andoni Iraola’s ambitions as a head coach will be matched by Bournemouth, the president of the club’s ownership group Black Knight Football has said.
Tim Bezbatchenko, appearing on a special episode of The Athletic FC podcast for a series on multi-club ownership, said that there was “no ceiling” to the ambitions of Bournemouth owner Bill Foley and struck an upbeat tone on the future of Iraola.
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The 42-year-old joined Bournemouth in the summer of 2023 from Spanish side Rayo Vallecano and guided the south coast club to a 12th-placed Premier League finish in his first season in charge.
However, it is this season where Iraola has really established himself at the Vitality Stadium, masterminding victories over Arsenal, Manchester City, and Tottenham Hotspur in addition to a 4-1 victory away at Newcastle United in January and a 5-0 victory over third-place Nottingham Forest the following week.
Iraola’s side are currently 10th in the Premier League but are just five points off the top five and possible qualification for next season’s Champions League.
“I don’t want to stand in for Bill [Foley] on this, but I think he’s said from the beginning that he wants people to want to be here,” Bezbatchenko said when asked about the club standing in the way if their head coach wanted to move on.
“I think that stands for players and coaches. If you are sitting with Andoni over the next few months, you’re going to talk about his goals and ambitions. I think that they will match with Black Knights and Bournemouth because there’s no ceiling to Bill’s ambition for this club.
“We hope and plan for it to match with Andoni. He’s a really good human, our leader and, and while you would like to say is the norm within the business, unfortunately, it is not. And it is great he’s a great person to work with.
“It obviously has to align. It can’t be something where Bournemouth doesn’t get what it needs from the transaction. But when you’re talking with individuals like the head coach or all of the players, you want to find alignment.”
Black Knight are a group of investors who bought Bournemouth in December 2022 and then acquired a 30 per cent stake in French side Lorient a month later.
The group then bought Auckland, an Australian Professional Leagues (APL) expansion franchise in New Zealand’s largest city before buying a minority stake in Scottish Premiership side Hibernian and they are in talks to buy Portuguese club Moreirense.
Bournemouth are next in action against reigning Premier League champions Manchester City in the FA Cup quarter-final at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday.
(Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
