Unfortunately, they've plummeted down the Premier League this season, and currently find themselves in 17th position, without a win, and just one point off the bottom of the table.
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Truffert is a wanted man
Whether Iraola's replacement, Marco Rose, will ultimately prove to be the right man for the job will be seen in due course.
For now, he and his squad have to concentrate on winning matches, and hope that the big boys don't come circling for his best players.
That might already seem to be an issue that the club will need to deal with as early as the January transfer window, with reports suggesting that Iraola would like to acquire his former left-back Adrien Truffert.
It seems that Liverpool might face competition from North East rivals Man Utd, though AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Benfica are also credited with an interest in the player.
Kerkez to be replaced by the same player twice?
Ironically, Truffert was bought by Iraola to replace Milos Kerkez, after the latter was signed by Liverpool.
A season on from that transfer, Kerkez hasn't done an awful lot to justify a starting spot, meaning that his position could well be threatened should a deal for Truffert get over the line in due course.
Man Utd have their own issues at left-back, of course, with Luke Shaw getting no younger and becoming more injury-prone as the years go by,
A fee of around the €71m mark has been mooted should any interested parties want to acquire the French international, but what would they be getting for what is a reasonably significant spend?
Brilliant numbers
For a start, since signing for Bournemouth, he's made the most tackles of any player, and his 125 attempts are at least 50 more than anyone else, with Alex Scott's 75 the next best showing.
His 56 interceptions are the joint-most in the squad, 84 headed clearances are the third-best output, whilst Scott is the only player to have won possession back more times than Truffert's 219 occasions.
The left-back's industry is clear to see when you also factor in that since signing, he's attempted the most one-on-one duels in the squad (478), winning 249 for a more than reasonable 52.09% success.
Six assists provided are more than any of his teammates, and 38 chances created from left-back is a sensational return.
Only Marcos Senesi, prior to leaving for Tottenham Hotspur, had made more passes than Truffert. The Frenchman attempted 1,792, of which 1,491 reached their target for an 83.2% success (Senesi managed 77.69% for comparison).
In terms of crosses, only three players made it into double figures for successful attempts. Alex Jimenez (11), Marcus Tavernier (13) and Truffert (37), indicating just how important the latter has also been in an attacking sense.
To add to his repertoire, Truffert can also boast a 44.58% dribbling success (third best), 3,013 total touches, just 46 less than Senesi's top-rated 3,059, and a 57.14% shot accuracy, which placed him only behind strikers Antoine Semenyo and Junior Kroupi.
All in all then, there's barely a weakness to his game, and with his best playing years still ahead of him, injuries notwithstanding, there's likely to be an awful lot more to come.
Losing their left-back makes no sense for Bournemouth
On that basis, €71m might not seem bad value at all, and one might expect that Iraola would be in the box seat for Truffert's services, bearing in mind that he brought the player to English football and clearly values the player's characteristics and work rate.
Whether or not Bournemouth have clawed themselves out of trouble by January, they can ill afford to lose a player of Truffert's evident quality.
Rose and the board of the club have to consider their next move very carefully, as even if sale proceeds are able to strengthen the squad elsewhere, if the Cherries were to be without the various facets of the game that the left-back brings to them in abundance, then moving him on makes no sense whatsoever.
Jason Pettigrove has been the features writer for Flashscore since 2025, utilising Opta data to form the basis of his articles. He has previously worked for high-profile football clubs, news and media outlets, both in print and digital, and can usually be found watching FC Barcelona when time permits. You can read more of his pieces here.
