CHERRIES legend Tommy Elphick described Gary O’Neil as a “scarily good” head coach, believing his nomination for manager of the month is “fully deserved” having made some “massive calls”.

O’Neil is on a five-man shortlist for the April award alongside Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola, Unai Emery of Aston Villa, Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson and former Cherries manager Eddie Howe, for his exploits at Newcastle United.

During April, O’Neil presided over five wins from Cherries’ seven matches, which lifted them up to 13th in the Premier League table and nine points clear of the relegation zone.

That included three away wins, at Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City and Southampton, as well as home triumphs over Fulham and Leeds United.

Discussing O’Neil’s nomination, Elphick, who works as part of Cherries’ first-team coaching staff, told the Daily Echo: “It is fully deserved and I think that’s twice he’s been nominated since he’s got the job.

“It shows in such a short period how well he’s done and the work he puts in is absolutely tireless.

“He leaves no stone unturned and is constantly watching our team, other teams, to see how we can improve and nullify the next opposition.

“The month has been quite crazy, schedule-wise and there’s been a lot of hard work the gaffer has put in.

“As a group of staff, we’ve tried to support him in every way which we can.

“That’s from support staff like myself, Shaun Cooper, Tim Jenkins, all the way down to the analyst boys, kit men, chefs, so many people have contributed.

“It’s a fully justified nomination and hopefully he comes out and can win it.”

Bournemouth Echo:

O’Neil was also nominated for the award in September, his first full month as interim head coach, after beating Nottingham Forest and drawing at Newcastle. He lost out to Manchester United’s Erik ten Hag.

Asked for an insight into how O’Neil works behind the scenes, Elphick explained: “He’s relentless. He’s 24-7. He’s always got his laptop open, is always trying to learn, about our lads and the opposition coming up.

“The way he dissects a game, working closely with the manager now as opposed to being a player in the changing room, the work he puts in and how he breaks a game down to us as support staff to understand what he wants is scarily good really.

“I think the most beautiful thing about what has gone on so far is we can take it to another level. We can improve and there is a lot of self-reflection to do over the summer.

“So much of the work has been the right work and great work, but we understand as a group of staff, I’m not sure there would be too many Premier League management staff as young as the one that we currently have.

“That’s a beautiful thing that can be moulded and shaped and developed as we go on. So this is only the start hopefully and hopefully we see many, many years of this manager in charge.”

Elphick added: “Recently, he’s had some massive, massive calls to make, regarding the team.

“We’ve had lads drop out through injuries or whatever it might be. Tactical tweaks, which have suited certain players and maybe not suited other players for the gameplan and the decisions and the calls he’s made in the past month have really paid off.”

Voting for manager of the month closes at midday on Monday, with fans able to vote via the Premier League website.

Cherries begin their May schedule by hosting Chelsea this afternoon (3pm).