The ambient microphones captured a striking sound in the draw between Bournemouth and West Ham (1-1) last Monday: Andoni Iraola giving instructions to Kepa… in Basque!!!
“Kepa, this way! Eskubitik, eskubitik, bai!” the former AEK Larnaca, Mirandés and Rayo coach was heard shouting when the Spanish international was preparing to play a long free-kick from his own half.
“On the right, on the right, yes,” was Iraola’s message to the former Athletic and Real Madrid goalkeeper. An anecdote that the Bournemouth coach has addressed with his ‘DAZN’ colleagues: “It comes out a little without thinking about it. Sometimes we speak in English, other times in Spanish, in Basque… I can’t tell you. We don’t always speak in the same language”.
“With Kepa I talk about everything, it depends who you are with, how big the group is… we pull from one thing or another,” Iraola continues.
But he not only speaks Basque with Kepa: “For me it is a pleasure when we play against Unai Emery or Julen [Lopetegui] “Be able to speak Basque for 3-4 minutes because here it is more complicated”
