Betis more than deserved their point here although we were a tad off the pace in truth.
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UEFA Champions League Group B v
FC RB Salzburg 0 Athletic Bilbao 3 (Goni 9, Alvarez de Lara 64, Galan 80) Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Elustondo, Galarza, David Garcia, Garmendia, Zerhouni*, Alvarez de Lara, Munoz, Prieto (Izan), Muniain (Castillo), Goni (Galan)
A nice victory as I played my backups against the groups weakest side. Our 2nd goal was a scorcher as Alvarez de Lara struck from distance. Galan scored his 1st goal for us here too.
Sporting Gijon have had their moment in the sun it seems as they were poor here. THey had a man sent-off and immediately pulled a goal back somehow.
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Athletic Bilbao 2 (Williams 39, 81) Barcelona 0 Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Perdomo, Laporte, Nunez (Galarza), Darko Garcia, Merino, Martinez, Williams*, Iribarren, Gabilondo (Muniain), Iribar (Goni)
Williams strikes again and again and again except his first strike was disallowed for some reason. His first goal was a wonderful move with Iribarren playing a delightful pass to set him up. He also assisted his 2nd too.
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SUMMARY
This month was all about Inaki Williams as he played 4 league games and scored in all of them including a double against Barcelona. A couple of years ago Muniain had a crazy goal scoring season when he neared 30 and maybe it is Williams' turn this term.
Despite having only played 3 league games we have opened up a 3pt lead already which is encouraging. Barcelona have started ok but Real Madrid have been atrocious.
Finally I signed a new contract at the club worth £90,000 a week - still £20,000 less than I get with Spain! - and Mikel Munoz has also signed a new long term contract.
Abel Ruiz has scored 6 goals for his country - 2 hat-tricks!!!. Suso missed a penalty to deny him his hat-trick while David Galarza made his international debut.
We were excellent here and my 2 wingers were superb. Gabilondo scored 1 and got 3 assists while Williams scored 2 and my 2 strikers that played scored a goal each. Perfect!
That should see us through lol. Munoz was brilliant here and deserved his hat-trick. I really like the look of Ivan Lopez but he has a few CBs in front of him at the minute.
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SUMMARY
Another perfect month!!! We won every game both home and abroad and as ever are looking very strong. We actually end the month having scored 11 goals in our last 2 games which is great as we have some tricky fixtures coming up next month.
Alberto Gabilondo really had a great month. He scored in 4 games, made his international debut and signed a new contract with the club and his attributes have improved as well and all this at the age of 17!!!!
Our 1st half performance here was a joy to behold as we were 2-0 up and had 19 attempts at goal - this away from home against a decent side. Gabilondo has scored in the last 4 league games now.
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UEFA Champions League Group B
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Athletic Bilbao 0 Benfica 0 Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Elustondo, Galarza, David Garcia, Garmendia, Zerhouni, Alvarez de Lara, Munoz, Prieto (Calvo), Muniain (Castillo), Goni (Galan)
Meh. They had a man sent-off with a couple of minutes to go but it didn't give us much time to take advantage of it. We qualify for the next round though.
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Atletico Madrid 3 (Lirola 46, Geubbels 64, 90) Athletic Bilbao 1 (Goni 80)
Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Perdomo, Laporte, Nunez, Darko Garcia, Merino, Martinez, Williams (Goni), Iribarren (Prieto), Gabilondo (Muniain), Iribar
This was harsh very harsh and a bad day at the office. We were a goal down and then given a penalty which Gabilondo hit straight at their keeper and then they went up the park and scored their 2nd. Goni pulled one back but they sealed it in stoppage time. To add insult to injury Williams got injured and is out for 2-3 months.
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Athletic Bilbao 3 (Gabilondo 3pen, 80, Iribar 39) Villarreal 0 Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Perdomo, Laporte, Nunez, Darko Garcia (Elustondo), Merino (Alvarez de Lara), Zerhouni, Munoz, Iribarren (Prieto), Gabilondo*, Iribar
Very nice. It was important to get back to winning ways after losing against Atletico.
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UEFA Champions League Group B
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Athletic Bilbao 3 (Goni 1, 33, Lopez 76) FC RB Salzburg 1 (Stang 30) Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Elustondo (Perdomo), Galarza, David Garcia, (Lopez) Garmendia, Zerhouni, Alvarez de Lara, Munoz, Prieto, Castillo (Manuel Perez), Goni*
A decent win. Goni is now our top scorer this season so far with these 2 goals while I was surprised to see 16y/o CB Lopez score from a free-kick and then I clicked on his profile and he has 15 for free-kicks which moves him closer to our 1st team in truth as we only have Gabilondo as a set piece specialist.
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SUMMARY
This month was short and quite mixed as we got some good victories but also drew with Benfica and got beat by Atletico Madrid however we end the month 4pts clear of Atletico so we are still in control.
What I have noticed for next month is that there is no gap in the fixture list for the Club World Cup! Normally there is a gap in the 2nd week of December for the tournament but as it stands we have 7 fixtures up to the 21st of December and then there is the winter break so god knows.
We just need a performance away to France to qualify for the next round - easier said than done!!! Sergio Gomez of Liverpool made his Spain debut here.
v Athletic Bilbao 4 (Munoz 41, Gabilondo 42, 50, Iribar 73) Alaves 0 Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Perdomo, Laporte, Nunez, Darko Garcia, Merino, Martinez, Munoz, Iribarren (Prieto), Gabilondo*, Iribar (Goni)
A fine win but we almost shot ourselves in the foot when we gave away a 3rd minute penalty but fortunately Arrizabalaga saved it. Gabilondo is on fire at the minute. Munoz got injured and is out for a few weeks which is very annoying as he had a chance for a decent run in the side.
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Copa del Rey 4th Round 2nd Leg
v Athletic Bilbao 2 (Goni 42, Prieto 46) Atletico Baleares 0 (Agg: 8-2) Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Elustondo, Galarza (Lopez), David Garcia, Garmendia, Zerhouni*, Alvarez de Lara, Castillo, Prieto (Calvo), Muniain, Goni (Galan)
I am pretty annoyed that we didn't win by more but it could be worse - we could have been knocked out by the minnows like Real Madrid who lost to Racing Santander!
Gabilondo scored here with a free-kick 35 yards out - a wonder strike!!!
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UEFA Champions League Group B v
AC Milan 3 (Vada 62, Silva 72, 90) Athletic Bilbao 2 (Muniain 12, Goni 23pen)
Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Elustondo, Galarza, David Garcia (Lopez), Garmendia, Zerhouni, Alvarez de Lara, Castillo (Galan), Prieto (Calvo), Muniain, Goni
I don't know what happened here. We were 2up and cruising and Goni even missed a 3rd minute penalty but in the last half hour we managed to throw the game away. We end up top of the group by 1pt and this win was enough for Milan to qualify too.
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Real Madrid 0 Athletic Bilbao 2 (Castillo 7, Gabilondo 29pen)
Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Perdomo, Laporte*, Nunez, Darko Garcia, Merino, Martinez, Castillo, Iribarren (Prieto), Gabilondo (Muniain), Iribar (Goni)
Magnificent!!!!
I slagged off Real and Brendan Rodgers before the game and fortunately my players backed me up by winning. Castillo scored a vital early goal and then Gabilondo scored yet again to seal it. They had a man sent-off with 15min to go.
That's how you win a final!!! We dominated from start to finish and fully deserved our large winning margin.
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SUMMARY
An unusual December in the fact that the Club World Cup was played at the end of the month so we had a load of fixtures crammed in before then. We won every match apart from a shocking defeat to AC Milan where we were 2up .
The highlight of the month was the 2-0 win over Real Madrid who have had a nightmare start to the season. They had recovered a little so it was nice to pile on a bit more misery. We naturally also won the Club World Cup although it was harder than expected as we struggled in the semi before comfortably beating Gremio in the final.
Finally it is an end of an era as I have agreed to sell Iker Muniain. He came to me a few times this year looking for a new challenge and at 32 and with Castillo emerging I thought it was time to sell him on and he will leave to join Besiktas for £4m. It was fitting that he scored in the Club World Cup Final - his last game for the club.
v Athletic Bilbao 2 (Munoz 35, Goni 73pen) Leganes 0 Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Perdomo, Laporte, Nunez, Darko Garcia, Zerhouni*, Martinez (Alvarez de Lara), Munoz, Iribarren, Gabilondo (Castillo), Iribar (Goni) Leganes lie in 19th place so maybe we should have scored more than 2 but we won and that's the main thing.
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Numancia 1 (Alvarez 81) Athletic Bilbao 1 (Goni 62) Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Perdomo, Laporte, Nunez, Darko Garcia, Merino, Martinez, Munoz (Castillo), Iribarren (Prieto), Gabilondo, Iribar (Goni*) This was a shock result!!! To be fair to Numancia they were one of the few teams who attacked us and fully deserved their point.
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Copa del Rey 5th Round 1st Leg
v Athletic Bilbao 3 (Costas og15, Galan 35, Munoz 54) Celta Vigo 1 (Barri 1) Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Elustondo, Galarza, Lopez, Garmendia, Zerhouni, Alvarez de Lara (Catala), Munoz, Prieto (Izan), Castillo (Manuel Perez), Galan Their manager doesn't like me so I played my backups and beat him. That should shut him up - but we play them in our next 2 games!!! Celta had a player sent-off near the end.
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v Athletic Bilbao 3 (Iribarren 2, 40, Laporte 77) Celta Vigo 0 Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Perdomo, Laporte, Nunez, Darko Garcia, Merino (Zerhouni), Martinez, Munoz (Castillo), Iribarren*, Gabilondo, Iribar (Goni) Another win against Celta. Iribarren was great and it was nice for him to score 2. Celta had a man sent-off near the end lol.
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Copa del Rey 5th Round 2nd Leg v
Celta Vigo 1 (Escalante 42) Athletic Bilbao 3 (Prieto 5, Goni 54, 63) (Agg: 6-2) Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Elustondo, Galarza (David Garcia), Lopez, Garmendia, Zerhouni, Alvarez de Lara (Catala), Munoz*, Prieto (Izan), Castillo, Goni Mikel Munoz assisted all 3 goals here in a superb performance. Goni is banging in the goals and is our top scorer while Iribar isn't doing it to be fair. Celta didn't have a man sent-off!!!!
Whats even better is our 3rd win in successive matches against Celta Vigo has made them sack their manager, Jorge Jesus, who cant stand me!!
Always nice to have a derby win and Laporte has now scored in 2 league games in a row. Plus Martinez scored!!!
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Copa del Rey Quarter-Final 1st Leg
v
Athletic Bilbao 2 (Munoz 47, Izan 89)
Girona 0 Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Elustondo, Galarza (David Garcia), Lopez, Garmendia, Zerhouni, Alvarez de Lara, Munoz, Prieto (Izan*), Castillo, Goni (Larrinaga)
A decent win and yet again we have a triple header. I have high hopes for Izan and he scored a belter here. He suffered an injury earlier in the season which has limited his appearances so far. Mikel Larrinaga has been amazing for the U19s so got his debut here.
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Athletic Bilbao 2 (Iribar 48, 66) Girona 0 Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Perdomo (Elustondo), Laporte, Nunez, Darko Garcia, Merino (Alvarez de Lara), Martinez, Williams (Munoz), Prieto, Gabilondo, Iribar*
Goni was putting pressure on Iribar and he has responded brilliantly by scoring in recent games and got another 2 here.
Mikel Munoz loves the Copa del Rey this season as he has now scored 7 goals in it this season.
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SUMMARY
It was business as usual on the park this month as we were unbeaten during the month and strangely enough had 2 triple headers against Celta Vigo and Girona. We reached the semis of the Copa del Rey where we will play Atletico Madrid and with Real and Barcelona out it is fair to say that whoever goes through will win the cup.
Transfer wise nobody came in and I loaned a load more out. Aitor Sanz, Eneko Alonso and Mouhamed Mbaye are the notable ones but obviously the main departure was Iker Muniain who joined Besiktas for an initial £4m. He made 305 appearances for me and scored 87 goals. If you add the appearances he made before I took over it means that he is a true Athletic legend.
Gabilondo looks very impressive. Just started my own Bilbao save due to my hatred of the scouting system this year! Amazed with your success but you are the Basque king!
This was a tough match and I am happy with a score draw. Juve took the lead and then they missed a penalty before Gabilondo scored twice in 4min. They equalised through Agirre - who is Basque and looks a player - and then the game petered out.
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Athletic Bilbao 3 (Iribar 33, 54, Castillo 58) Deportivo La Coruna 1 (Pozo 17) Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Perdomo (Elustondo), Laporte, Nunez, Darko Garcia, Merino, Martinez (Alvarez de Lara), Williams, Iribarren (Munoz), Castillo*, Iribar
Not bad. Gabilondo had a minor knock so Castillo came in and did great as he has done all season tbh.
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Athletic Bilbao 3 (Williams 10, Gabilondo 45, Iribarren 54) Levante 0 Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Elustondo, Laporte, Nunez, Darko Garcia, Merino (Alvarez de Lara), Zerhouni, Williams (Castillo), Iribarren, Gabilondo*, Iribar (Goni)
A comfortable win aided and abetted by Gabilondo's fluke goal as his cross somehow found the net.
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SUMMARY
We weren't at our enthralling best this month but we did enough in each game to get by. We have opened up a massive 15pt gap at the top of the table so I know I can afford to rest my players for the Champions League games no bother - this I feel has been key to us winning the Champions League in the last few years.
We have also reached the Copa del Rey final after beating Atletico Madrid and we are surely going to beat Sevilla who usually really struggle against us.
March has some tough fixtures ahead for us both at home and abroad plus the all important youth intake and also Spain are back in action!
Barcelona 3 (Hiago 49, Diawara 70, 75) Athletic Bilbao 1 (Iribar 45)
Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Perdomo, Laporte, Nunez (Galarza), Darko Garcia, Merino, Martinez, Williams (Munoz), Iribarren (Prieto), Gabilondo, Iribar
A poor result and an even worse performance. We took the lead just before half-time against the run of play but Barcelona came out in the 2nd half and battered us to get the points that they deserved.
This would be a good result at any time but after just being beaten by Barcelona this was an excellent result. Valencia sacked their manager straight after this game.
If my backups can beat Sevilla then I expect my first team to win the cup against them next week. This win also secures Champions League football for next year and I have a transfer budget of £465m for next season apparently lol.
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UEFA Champions League 1st Round 2nd Leg
v Athletic Bilbao 1 (Merino 67) Juventus 1 (Flaysmar 33) (Agg: 3-3 - Athletic Bilbao win on away goals)
We did just enough to get through but it was tough. We fell behind despite dominating and kept plugging away and got what we deserved when Merino scored his 1st goal of the season with a cracker from distance. He then went off injured but we held on.
v Athletic Bilbao 3 (Laporte 13, 73, Galan 87) Atletico Madrid 0 Lineup - Arrizabalaga, Perdomo, Laporte*, Nunez, Darko Garcia, Merino, Martinez, Williams (Munoz), Iribarren (Prieto), Gabilondo, Goni (Galan)
A great victory and 2 surprise scorers as Laporte got a brace and my 3rd choice striker came on and got a goal. Very impressive.
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SUMMARY
March - my favourite month of the year as it tends to see us all but seal the title, there are Champions League and international games plus of course the excitement of a new youth intake.
On the field went ok. We got beat by Barcelona sure but bounced back by beating Valencia and we also beat Atletico Madrid easily so all is good there and in the Champions League we just managed to knock out Juventus on away goals and we will face Liverpool in the next round.
Finally Marcos Alvarez de Lara is unhappy at not getting first team football - he is quality but 4th choice while Juan Luis Prieto has requested a transfer too so both will start the final matches of the league campaign to see if that wins them over. Prieto has a long term contract but Alvarez de Lara's expires in 2027.
We should have won by 10 tbh. I have made the decision after this game to match my Bilbao formation from our next set of games (apart from against N.I.) as I feel I have some decent wingers finally. Kike will replace Nunez as a first choice CB too. Agirre made his international debut here.
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FIFA World Cup Qualifiers Group 7
v
Northern Ireland 1 (Magennis 62) Spain 4 (Abel Ruiz 57, 69, Williams 67, Asensio 78) Lineup - De Gea, Bellerin, Kike, Nunez, Garcia, Merino, Zerhouni, Isco (Williams), Iribarren (Prieto), Asensio*, Iribar (Abel Ruiz)
After 55min we were truly struggling so I made a bold triple substitution and within 15min we were 3 up and 2 of my subs had scored all of the goals!!!
WHAT DO YOU THINK????
I have had a thought that when a manager gets sacked AT THE END OF THE SEASON I could take over and buy some players for them. I have noticed over the years that the Spanish clubs mainly export players and I thought I could do a player search (god knows what a non Basque regen looks like lol) and try to improve them.
So say if the Villarreal manager got sacked I would save the game, add a manager and then spend a MAXIMUM OF 2 WEEKS looking for players (non Athletic players) and try and sign them. After that I would simply resign and I wouldn't sign any players from the clubs I take over either - not a hardship lol.
I thought that this would make things more competitive and maybe I wouldn't win the league by Valentines Day every year!!! I would only do it with La Liga clubs.
Please let me know what you think as the end of the season is 2 posts away. Leave things alone or be a meddler.
I have actually decided to pause the story for a couple of weeks as I am away to Greece in a fortnight but I will start a quick challenge for myself inbetween times today.
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