Andoni sure to be Cherry picked for City

Iraola should be front and centre of post-Pep Etihad

- leamondunphy

BOURNEMOUTH were second best to Manchester City but their manager should be in pole position to replace Pep Guardiola at the Etihad.

Andoni Iraola came from nowhere to take over at the Cherries in the summer of 2023.

A quick look at his CV shows a short spell in Cyprus with AEK Larnaca, where he won his only trophy so far - the Cypriot version of the Community Shield. Within seven months, however, he was bombed out.

Next up was a little-known Spanish second tier club Mirandes, where a good cup run took him to another side in the same division, Rayo Vallecano.

After another good cup run and promotion to La Liga, Premier League clubs started sniffing around, even if he wasn't an obvious candidate for the English topflight.

Bournemouth took a chance and they haven't looked back since.

It's hardly the CV of someone who could follow in the footsteps of that great Catalan Guardiola, but if City don't seriously consider the brilliant Basque native, then to me thered be a screw loose somewhere in their recruitment department.

The season is only 10 games old, but there is no way Bournemouth should be anywhere near the top four.

Look at the players they lost this summer - Dean Huijsen to Real Madrid, Milos Kerkez to Liverpool and Illia Zabarnyi to PSG are the headline departures, bringing in over €150m in transfer fees.

Most managers would be tearing their hair out to lose so many key players, but Iraola just shrugs his shoulders and gets on with it.