Bit late to the party, but has Richard Hughes got good experience/potential, bar being Edwards mate? Slightly concerned about this one. Not impressed with Howe/Tindall etc. One big lads club. The Sandbankz boys.
Can't remember where I was reading or heard it, but there was a suggestion that Hughes' time at Bournemouth can be divided into three parts: Howe era, post-Howe Demin era, and Foley era.
During the Howe era, Hughes is basically buying according to Howe's wishes. During that period, his signings include Callum Wilson, Tyrone Mings, Josh King, Lewis Cook, Nathan Ake, Asmir Begovic, Dominic Solanke, Jefferson Lerma, Arnaut Danjuma, Philip Billing, Aaron Ramsdale, David Brooks, Lloyd Kelly.
When Howe leaves, the club's owner Maxim Demin wants the club to start spending a lot less. So there's pretty much two straight seasons of free signings and cheap punts. Also there was a short turnaround between seasons because of COVID, so he ends up going with Tindall as an internal hire due to lack of time and resources. After Tindall was sacked, Hughes had to stick to low-cost hires, so Bournemouth hire Woodgate on a short-term contract and hire Scott Parker thereafter hoping he can get them promoted as he had done with Fulham. Parker is sacked after the 9-0 loss to Liverpool after criticizing the transfer budget. Gary O'Neil is brought in on an interim basis, which is later made permanent. It was only late in the window when Bournemouth actually started spending any money. Signings that summer include Ryan Fredericks, Marcus Tavernier, Neto and Marcos Sensei.
Bill Foley takes over from Demin as owner in December 2013. Foley already has investments in other clubs, so there becomes more of a shift towards spending with a multi-club model in mind. At the end of the season O'Neil is sacked because Foley and Hughes believe they have an opportunity to hire Iraola, who Hughes had been interested in hiring years earlier but couldn't. Signings made in the past season and a half include Illya Zabarnyi, Antoine Semenyo, Justin Kluivert, Luis Sinisterra, Tyler Adams, Max Aarons, Alex Scott, Milos Kerkez, Hamed Traore, Romain Faivre
