Iraola next? The six managers who took step down in the Premier League all struggled | OneFootball

Andoni Iraola ought to be careful if he leaves Bournemouth for Chelsea or Crystal Palace; the only other managers to take a step down all struggled.

Only six managers have ever left one Premier League club in the summer for another top-flight side they finished above in the previous season.

That sextet lasted an average of 73 games and 19 months in their new posts. If Iraola swaps Bournemouth for Chelsea or Crystal Palace, he will be fighting against history.

Thomas Frank – Brentford (10th) to Spurs (17th), 2025

In October 2024, Frank noted that: “If I ever got the offer to go to a big club and I decided to go there, it would probably not make my life better. I think we all know that.”

Long before his eventual Spurs demise in February 2026, his theory was excruciatingly proved true.

At his unveiling in north London, Frank acknowledged the “pressures” and “ambitions” inherent with “coming to a big club”. A serial overachiever in the small pond of Brentford duly drowned in the ocean of Spurs – even this generationally dreadful version.

Frank had finished 18 points and seven places ahead of Ange Postecoglou’s side before stepping down to inherit a dumpster fire which promptly engulfed him.

Ronald Koeman – Southampton (6th) to Everton (11th), 2016

After offering a brief insight into the contract dispute which led him to abandoning the Southampton ship a year before his deal was due to expire, Koeman similarly cited “that ambition to grow” as justification behind jumping to Everton.

Saints had just put together the best season in their Premier League history at the height of their forgetful-street-resistant powers. But the impending summer sales of Sadio Mane, Graziano Pelle and Victor Wanyama underlined their status as a selling club.

The contrast with an Everton transfer window in which they furnished Koeman’s new squad with Idrissa Gueye, Ashley Williams, Yannick Bolasie, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Ademola Lookman by using their John Stones windfall was apparently stark.

Koeman subsequently oversaw an improvement on Roberto Martinez’s mid-table finish by taking Everton to seventh in his only full season, one place above Claude Puel’s hilariously unmemorable Southampton.

But the wheels disintegrated by October of Koeman’s second Toffees campaign, having reportedly told supporters ‘to be realistic and understand their position in the table’.

Paul Lambert – Norwich (12th) to Aston Villa (16th), 2012

“There is a lot of expectancy at the club and it is not something I’m going to shy away from,” Lambert said after securing his acrimonious switch from Norwich to Aston Villa. “It is something I will thrive on, hopefully.”

Reader: he did not thrive.

Not since the inaugural Premier League season had the Canaries and Villans vied so bitterly for the same shiny trinket. One might argue that a 42-year-old Lambert was slightly less illustrious than the actual title, but it was a different time.

Zinedine Zidane’s best mate had taken Norwich from 22nd in League One to a Premier League finish of 12th in three years, fuelled largely by pure, Grant Holt-shaped vibes. Beyond Liverpool-bound Brendan Rodgers, Lambert was the Young British Manager du jour.

Villa soon put paid to that. They were an institutional mess and would eventually suffer relegation roughly 18 months after Lambert eventually departed, but even in his three years the rot had fully set in.

Under Lambert, Villa finished 15th twice on 41 and 38 points, eventually sacking him when they sat 18th and the Christian Benteke magic had started to dry up, with only Tim Sherwood able to briefly revive it.

Steve Bruce – Wigan (11th) to Sunderland (16th), 2009

By his own admission, Bruce had “worked over 10 years for a chance like this”.

“It didn’t take much persuasion,” he added of “the perfect step with the size of the football club and structure”, before presumably asking how the bacon was on Wearside.

The football was streaky at best. While he lasted 18 months at the Stadium of Light, the fans were never particularly enamoured with Bruce and the sale of Darren Bent essentially sealed his fate.

His final month in charge had the perfect bookends: the ceremonial handing over of three points to Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford; before a defeat at home to the Wigan side he had bestowed upon Martinez.

Mark Hughes – Blackburn (7th) to Manchester City (9th), 2008

So steadfast in their assessment of Hughes as “our number one target for the manager’s job” were Manchester City in 2008 that they paid what was a world-record compensation fee to extricate him from Blackburn.

“These are exciting times for Manchester City and I hope the supporters can understand that I share their goals,” said owner Thaksin Shinawatra. “That sometimes means making ruthless decisions,” he added; Hughes would discover as such within a year and a half.

But it was a well-earned move after almost four years of consistent solidity at Ewood Park. In three full seasons under Hughes, Rovers finished 6th, 10th and 7th while reaching the FA and League Cup semi-finals.

His credentials were such that Chelsea ended up sniffing around once Avram Grant was discovered to indeed be Avram Grant. But Manchester City moved fastest to set in motion their era of dominance.

Alan Ball – Southampton (10th) to Manchester City (17th) in 1995

“Alan Ball says this is the manager’s job he has been waiting for and that he is willing to die for the club. If the players go out with the same determination, we will be on our way,” said Manchester City chairman Franny Lee, around the time he appointed his close friend and former England teammate Ball as manager.

It was a controversial move, with Ball turning his back on a Southampton side he – or rather a pre-AI Matt Le Tissier – rescued from the relegation Ian Branfoot had been steering inexorably towards.

Ball stayed for one more season at The Dell, finishing 10th before cashing in on whatever stock when Lee made the call to replace Brian Horton in 1995.

How well did that go? Ball wound all the players up by waving his World Cup winner’s medal around, before accidentally relegating them by relaying false information to the squad on a frantic final day