AFC Bournemouth have appointed Gary O’Neil as permanent manager almost three months after the sacking of Scott Parker.
O’Neil took charge as caretaker manager when Parker was relieved of his duties, and since then, has gone on to pick up 13 points from 11 league games, earning him the job on a permanent basis.
As a player O’Neil was handed his debut by ex-Portsmouth manager Tony Pulis back in 2000, at the young age of 16. Fast forward 22 years on, and Pulis has backed the recently appointed manager for more success in the future.
“He’s been very diligent, he’s been very hard working, and he’s been through a playing career that has been first class,” Pulis told Park Life Sport.
“He’s worked with some very good managers and he’s worked with some very good coaches. He is an intelligent lad who will take things on board.
“He’s done his work, now what he’s got to do is prove to everybody that he’s good enough to manage them.”
O’Neil was one of three bosses that were nominated for Premier League Manager of the Month in September, along with Antonio Conte and Erik ten Hag, after winning four points from Bournemouth’s two league fixtures during the month.
The 39-year-old has signed an 18-month contract with the club, which will see him through to the end of the 2023/2024 season. When Parker was sacked, the Cherries were on the brink of the relegation zone, with just three points after four games, but fast forward three months and they now sit in 14th place, with sixteen points after 15 games.
Though Pulis backs him to succeed at Bournemouth, he admits that it may not be an easy ride.
“Now they’ve decided to give him the job, fingers crossed he now takes them on further.
“It’s going to be a real tough job keeping Bournemouth in the Premiership, but he’s one of those boys that won’t shirk away from anything.”
We’re all behind you, boss 👊 pic.twitter.com/cQ2BzAn2U7
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) November 27, 2022
O’Neil has landed his first permanent job as a top flight manager after three months of role as caretaker manager. He was previously the assistant manager of Liverpool’s under-23 squad, before joining AFC Bournemouth as senior first team coach in February 2021.
He was part of Parker’s side that won promotion back to the Premier League after two seasons in the Championship. His rise from Liverpool under-23 assistant manager to Premier League manager is an impressive one, so he will be wanting to continue his rise in his managerial career.
His playing career came to an end over three years ago after he made 29 appearances for Bolton Wanderers in the 2018-19 season.
Pulis spoke about how he discovered O’Neil when he was 16, and how ex-Cheltenham manager Linsday Parsons, who at the time was a coach at Portsmouth, told Pulis about O’Neil.
“He [Lindsay Parsons] told me about a young player in midfield who’s just exceptional, and that was Gary.
“We’d had a couple of games when we first took over, where one or two things weren’t right, or what we wanted, and we decided to give Gary a run.
“We played at Ipswich away, they were top of the league, we went there and we won 1-0 and Gary did very very well.”
O’Neil spent nine seasons at Portsmouth, before he transferred to Middlesbrough, for whom he made 109 appearances for in both the Championship and the Premier League.
He played for West Ham United for three seasons between 2010 and 2013, before jumping between Queens Park Rangers, Norwich City and Bristol City. He finished his career with Bolton Wanderers after playing one season with them in the Championship and retired in 2019, aged 35.
In total, he made 489 appearances for clubs in the Premier League and Championship, scoring a total of 38 goals before undertaking his first management role as assistant manager of Liverpool’s under-23 squad in August 2020.
In February 2021, he was appointed senior first team coach of Bournemouth under the management of Jonathan Woodgate, who departed the club for Scott Parker in the summer of 2021.
He will be hoping that he can guide the Cherries through the Premier League season and avoid relegation in their first year back since the 2019-20 season.
