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Following the sacking of Liam Rosenior following a dismal set of results, Chelsea are in the hunt for a new permanent head coach ahead of the 2026\/27 Premier League season.<\/strong><\/p>\n According to Football London, the Blues have identified Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola as their new top target for the manager\u2019s hotseat. <\/p>\n The Spaniard is set to depart the Vitality Stadium at the end of the season, which would pave the way for Chelsea to swoop in \u2013 but they aren\u2019t the only ones who are keen to bring him on board.<\/p>\n While the Blues look to be the frontrunners to secure his signature, Manchester United are also thought to be interested. It remains to be seen if United will keep Michael Carrick in place beyond the end of the season \u2013 if they decide to let him go, they may well ramp up their efforts to sign Iraola up. <\/p>\n Iraola has also been tentatively linked with a move to Crystal Palace \u2013 however, he will only consider moving to Selhurst Park if they qualify for the Europa League next season by winning the Europa League. <\/p>\n Previously, Iraola had been linked with a move to his old club Athletic Bilbao \u2013 as a player, he made over 400 league appearances for the Basque outfit. However, they have since sign a deal to appoint former Borussia Dortmund coach Edin Terzic as their new manager \u2013 as such, they can be effectively ruled out.<\/p>\n Iraola has had an excellent season in charge of Bournemouth in 2025\/26. Historically a League One\/League Two outfit, they currently sit seventh in the Premier League team, having gone unbeaten since the start of January. <\/p>\n To guide a club of Bournemouth\u2019s size into European football is a spectacular achievement \u2013 additionally, he has also done it whilst implementing an attractive, attacking style of play.<\/p>\n Andoni Iraola isn\u2019t a traditional Chelsea manager from a tactical perspective. In recent history, the Blues have enjoyed most of their success with defensive-minded, counterattacking managers \u2013 Iraola is anything but a defensive coach. <\/p>\n Furthermore, Iraola has never managed a club of Chelsea\u2019s size. We have seen plenty of promising coaches failing to make the step up as of late \u2013 for example, Thomas Frank was outstanding at Brentford, but was sacked after just over half a season in charge of Tottenham.<\/p>\n Despite this, Chelsea like to develop young superstars \u2013 and so does Iraola. At Bournemouth, he has played a pivotal role in the development of promising talents such as Eli Junior Kroupi, Alex Scott and James Hill.<\/p>\n BlueCo\u2019s modus operandi has always been centred around signing the best young players in the world and developing them into top stars. From this perspective, Iraola would be an excellent choice for the role of Chelsea manager, but one must consider all the other factors at play. <\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Following the sacking of Liam Rosenior following a dismal set of results, Chelsea are in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Andoni Iraola\u2019s managerial stats<\/h2>\n
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\n \n Played<\/td>\n Wins<\/td>\n Draws<\/td>\n Losses<\/td>\n Win%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n AEK Larnaca<\/td>\n 29<\/td>\n 12<\/td>\n 9<\/td>\n 8<\/td>\n 41.4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Mirandes<\/td>\n 49<\/td>\n 18<\/td>\n 17<\/td>\n 14<\/td>\n 36.7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Rayo Vallecano<\/td>\n 136<\/td>\n 54<\/td>\n 32<\/td>\n 50<\/td>\n 39.7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Bournemouth<\/td>\n 123<\/td>\n 45<\/td>\n 38<\/td>\n 40<\/td>\n 36.6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n Would Andoni Iraola be a good fit at Chelsea?<\/h2>\n