‘From Arteta to Emery: How Understanding the Game Led Us to Success in Management’

In the last three decades, Premier League managers have undergone a marked shift towards a more strategic and technical approach, influenced greatly by the influx of foreign managers bringing their unique styles of play to the top tier of English football. This has resulted in a diverse range of tactics and playing philosophies being implemented by the best teams in the league, adding depth and complexity to the gameplay.

Along with Mikel Arteta, Unai Emery and Julen Lopetegui, Andoni Iraola is one of four managers to have started this Premier League season who hail from the same small corner of the Basque Country.

Youth football team-mates included Arsenal supremos Arteta and Xabi Alonso, who led Bayer Leverkusen to the 2023/24 Bundesliga unbeaten and also won the DFB-Pokal. There’s something in the water in Gipuzkoa.

Premier League manager Andoni Iraola explains why Basque managers are excelling

“It’s a coincidence but a real pleasure,” Iraola tells FourFourTwo. “The only reason that it makes sense is that Mikel, Xabi, even Unai… none of us were physical players. We needed the understanding of the game to play well. It’s probably helped with our transitions into managers.”

A technical right-back during his playing career, Iraola made over 500 appearances for Athletic Bilabo before retiring at New York City in MLS, alongside Frank Lampard, David Villa and Andrea Pirlo.

The Spaniard didn't realise that coaching would become the natural next step in his career, though. Long before Bournemouth, coaching began on a different coast for Iraola. Not yet 36 and only recently retired, Iraola took a left-field opportunity on the eastern tip of the Mediterranean at AEK Larnaca in Cyprus in 2018.

“I wasn’t even certain that I wanted to be a manager, I just wanted to give it a go!” Iraola reveals. “I wasn’t worried where in the world, in what division, I just wanted to challenge myself and see if I could picture myself in this environment with these demands – I wanted to know if I could implement things I had in my head.”

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Fortune failed to favour the brave. Just like his start at Bournemouth, Iraola struggled and went nearly two months without a win. Unlike at Bournemouth, he was sacked.

“If you don’t try these things, if you don’t make mistakes, you’ll never know,” he reflects. “Now, with the perspective of time, I still think it was the right decision to go there.”

Things have gone drastically better in the Premier League, with a 12th-placed finish in his first season at the Vitality Stadium yielding the Cherries their best-ever points tally in the top flight.