Last season Bournemouth brought in O'Neil as manager after we beat them 9-0 and they had an incredible turnaround and stayed up comfortably. Hughes then got rid of O'Neil and brought in Iraola. At the time Hughes handed in his notice that looked like a disastrous move.
O'Neil's Wolves started the season well and were comfortably in mid-table and were giving the top teams really tough games. Bournemouth had a terrible start to the season and won only 1 of their first 11 and had managed only 6 points from those 11 games and were in the bottom three on goal difference, with a minus 18 goal difference.
Hughes announcing his departure could easily have been more about Bournemouth's poor start than an expectation that he was going to get a top job. The first reports of Hughes handing in his notice came around the 9th of November. Given Klopp only told FSG of his intention to leave in November so I can't see the timeframe being right.
You might be right, I’m not disagreeing.
My own personal view which is completely made up by me is I feel like this whole thing has been brewing for a long time. I felt something was happening pretty much the moment Ward handed in his notice and the initial reports were “Liverpool aren’t going to look for his replacement until he’s left”, then when we appointed Schmadtke, again, it felt bizarre for such a forward-thinking company that seemingly embraces modern ideas, modern tech and modern leadership, that they would turn to a retired journeyman for a position that’s perceived to be crucial at the club. Americans value the ‘suits’ far more than the majority of British football fans, it was a bizarre appointment.
These are all people who will speak to each other a lot, share their ideas, plans for the future, feelings and developments in life. I’ve found it very hard to believe that Jurgen dropped the bombshell in November without anyone having an inkling it was coming. Lijnders obviously mentioned they’d discussed it in the summer, I feel like Klopp discussed leaving last season and Gordon persuaded him to stay for another year, brought in Schmadtke to make that year easier and knew he had to work on something big to bring Edwards back. They probably asked Jurgen for a decision before the calendar year end so they could get everything in motion and notices could be served. On top of that, Edwards being a good friend to Ian Graham is happy to do a year at Ludonautics to help get that off the ground and be the headline name for that company, get a few clubs on board before leaving for a bigger project for FSG.
We’ll obviously never know how the dominoes truly fell and what led to what. I just have a hard time believing all of these things have happened in such a relatively short space of time and happen to be a coincidence. I imagine Edwards remained a confidant of Gordon’s at times, I don’t believe they’ll have been sat in a boozer discussing it, but I do believe Gordon will have asked for a promise of sorts that he doesn’t go elsewhere (it seems he was offered a similar role to what he has here by Chelsea and Ineos) with one eye on the day Jurgen leaves and who would be best to guide the club out of that period.
Is this tin foil hat stuff? I’ve no idea, I’ve just been surprised at how such a large plan (multi club, Gordon changing role, top people being head hunted in the UK and Europe) appears to be developing very quickly. It just feels like this is something that’s around a year or so in the making.
