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Athletic Bilbao 5 (Torrejon og24, Ibai Gomez 32, Guillermo 37, Laporte 43pen, Iker 77) Celta Vigo 0 A very easy win. Mikel Arteta missed a pen for them.
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UEFA Champions League 1st Round 2nd Leg Athletic Bilbao 2 (Herrera 31, Benat 49pen) Feyenoord 2 (Zozulya 14, Trindade de Vilhena 54) (Athletic Bilbao win 5-4 on aggregate)
This wasnt one of our better performances but we are through and thats the main thing.
This was a tough match but Iker was our super sub once again and rescued a point for us.
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Real Sociedad 0 Athletic Bilbao 3 (Laporte 28, Muniain 48, Inigo Martinez 53) We win the Vasco derby once again and totally played them off the park. Muniain also had a goal disallowed.
-- Athletic Bilbao 1 (Iker 70) Sporting Gijon 1 (Guerrero 17)
****!!! Failure to win this at home is just not acceptable. Once again Iker came off the bench to score.
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Barcelona 1 (Messi 64) Athletic Bilbao 1 (Muniain 27)
I am delighted with the point that we gained here. Probably undeserved but hey ho.
This month was incredibly tough although we were unbeaten we drew 4 games in all. We no longer have our games in hand in the league but do have a 4pt advantage so I would like to think we can hold on to that.
In the cups we will play Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final and in the Champions League we have an extremely tough draw against Manchester City.
The youth intake was pretty good as I offered contracts to half a dozen players. One player did stand out though and is already valued at ?3.1m but alas he is no Aitor....... View attachment 389828
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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
AYMERIC LAPORTE View attachment 389830
FIFA World Cup Quals Group 5 Norway 2 (Berisha 77, 87) England 4 (Rooney 11, Oxlade-Chamberlain 52, Wilshere 68pen, Reginiussen og72)
Lineup - Butland, Walker, Jones, Caulker, Shaw, Hughes (Shelvey), Wilshere (Thorne), Walcott (Zaha), Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ward-Prowse, Rooney
Another win for me as England manager - keeps up the 100% record.
Athletic Bilbao 4 (Muniain 9, Inigo Martinez 11, Benat 25, Laporte 80) Osasuna 1 (De las Cuevas 81)
This was perfect revenge for our defeat against Osasuna earlier in the season.
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UEFA Champions League QF 1st Leg Manchester City 2 (De Bruyne 6, Negredo 90) Athletic Bilbao 1 (San Jose 81pen)
How we came out of this with a chance in the 2nd leg is beyond me. We should have lost by 5 or 6 but they couldnt finish thankfully.
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Athletic Bilbao 3 (Iraola 29pen, Herrera 57, Guillermo 76) Malaga 2 (Rescaldani 19, 60)
An entertaining affair this. I rested some players and Ruffier played a big part after saving a penalty.
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UEFA Champions League QF 2nd Leg Athletic Bilbao 5 (Herrera 42, 65, Laporte 47, Griezmann 79, Denswil og84) Manchester City 1 (Draxler 44) (Athletic Bilbao win 6-3 on aggregate)
What a comeback this was. I thought it would be a tight game but we absolutely battered them in the 2nd half.
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Valencia 3 (Bernat 30, Cartabia 47, 65) Athletic Bilbao 3 (Guillermo 44, Muniain 61, De Marcos 88)
As usual it was a thriller between us and Valencia. They had a goal disallowed in the 2nd half and once again we got a vital late goal.
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UEFA Champions League SF 1st Leg Bayern Munich 3 (Kroos 32, 73, Gotze 48) Athletic Bilbao 1 (Muniain 15)
We were awful here and only had 3 attempts at goal. We had a dream start but unusually for us just didnt build on that.
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Athletic Bilbao 4 (San Jose 7, De Marcos 26, Susaeta 27, Iker 29) Granada 2 (Adrian 59, El Arabi 66)
My backups were amazing for the first 30min and after that we were poor. They even had a goal chalked off in the 2nd half.
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UEFA Champions League SF 2nd Leg Athletic Bilbao 3 (Herrera 29, Ibai Gomez 30, Griezmann 46)
Bayern Munich 2 (Lewandowski 66, 117) (AET Bayern Munich win 5-4 on aggregate)
AAAGGGHHH!!!! We surged into a 3-0 lead and were through but Bayern battled back. We deserved to win by more but just couldnt score the 4th.
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Mallorca 0 Athletic Bilbao 7 (Muniain 5, 7, 8, Griezmann 41, 47, 85, Guillermo 42)
This was the perfect tonic after our Champions League exit. Muniain had the game won inside 8min and after that Guillermo and Griezmann ripped Mallorca to shreds.
The plus points of this month was overshadowed by our exit in the Champions League against Bayern Munich. I hope they go on to win the cup as that would mean them and us would have won the last 5 European Cups.
We still have a 4pt advantage in the league with 3 games to go but 2 of our 3 games is against Real Madrid and Barcelona so it could still all go wrong!
MAY
Athletic Bilbao 7 (Guillermo 6, Herrera 9, 13, Susaeta 26, Muniain 49, 90, Pique og59) Barcelona 0
INCREDIBLE!!!!!
We get our 2nd successive 7-0 victory here as we destroyed Barcelona. They had a man sent-off but we were winning 4-0 at the time so it didnt make much of a difference. Providing we dont **** up against Murcia the title is ours.
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Athletic Bilbao 3 (Iker 43, 54, 58) Real Madrid 1 (Icardi 33)
CHAMPIONS!!!!
This was almost as incredible as the Barca win as I played my backups here against a full strength Real Madrid side. Rubio got sent-off late on against his old club and they had a late goal disallowed.
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Copa del Rey Final Athletic Bilbao 2 (Inigo Martinez 38, Griezmann 44) Real Madrid 1 (Icardi 70)
WE WIN THE COPA DEL REY!!!
Finally we get our hands on the Spanish Cup. To be fair there would have been major questions asked if my rested first team couldnt beat a full strength Real side after my backups thumped them!!
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Real Murcia 1 (Rodriguez 80) Athletic Bilbao 2 (Ekiza 35, Garcia og37)
The final month of the season was a cracker. Firstly we humiliated Barcelona by thrashing them 7-0 and followed that up by my backups thumping Real Madrid 3-1. My first team then won my first Copa del Rey in a tight final against Real Madrid.
Another incredible season was had here in Bilbao. We won the league quite easily in the end but it could have been very different had we choked against Barca and Real in our final matches. We scored 123 goals in the league which is a new record also. Highlights were the back to back 7-0 wins against Mallorca and Barcelona, the 8-0 win over Alaves and my youngsters beating a full strength Real Madrid side 3-1.
We won the 3 minor trophies also and finally we got our hands on the Copa del Rey. We had kind draws all the way to the final where we edged out Real Madrid in a tight match.
Unfortunately our hold on the Champions League is over as Bayern Munich knocked us out at the semi-final stage albeit we ran them very close. We did manage to mount an amazing comeback against Man City though which was a great game.
Squad wise I am both thrilled at how my players played and progressed and excited at what the future holds as my youngsters look as though they are going to be top class - just nobody at Aitor level yet!
Benat all of a sudden became a regular scorer, Griezmann was excellent while Muniain found his form after a poor spell last season. Iker, Guillermo, Rubio, Lucas and Nieto have come on leaps and bounds with the first 2 being amazing this season.
Ruiz de Galarreta was a tad disappointing however but having said that he didnt play badly - I just expected more goals and assists from him.
Finally my B team managed to win the Liga Adelante which is a magnificent achievement so early on in the save. Obviously they are not allowed to get promoted as we are in the top division already which is a shame.
Spanish Player of the Year - A.Herrera Spanish Young Player of the Year - Guillermo Liga BBVA Top Spanish Scorer - I.Muniain Liga BBVA Team of the Year - A.Laporte, Inigo Martinez, C.Azpilicueta, A.Herrera, I.Muniain (M.Balenziaga) FIFA World Club Cup Best Player - A.Griezmann FIFA World Team of the Year - Inigo Martinez
Congrats on another fine season. Love watching your regens enter the game so early. I should really have more faith in mine but you don't get much choice with your transfer restrictions!
Going into August I had the quietest summer ever without even signing anyone and I thought that this would be the shortest post ever so I went out and changed that lol.............
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PLAYERS IN
Javi Martinez is interested but I am not interested at ?75m. Fernando Llorente is interested but I am not interested at ?30m but then he requested a transfer and I managed to pick him up for ?11m. Normally I would not be interested in signing a 32y/o player but this is Bilbao, this is Llorente and I have money burning holes in my pockets!!! View attachment 389499
I also signed a regen for half a million but he isnt worthy of a screenie lol
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PLAYERS OUT
For a change there is quite a bit of news here as I decided to cash in on a few players. I have plenty of good young CMs so I sold Ander Iturraspe to Monaco for ?13.5m and Norwich bought Oscar De Marcos for ?10m. Jon Aurtenetxe was the other first team squad member who departed as he was sold to Sevilla for ?1.6m. Backup keeper Arrizabalaga left for ?500,000k and Javi Ros went for ?350,000.
I had dozens of offers for several of my B team including some big money offers which was a slight surprise. Ramalho, Etxeberria, Martinez, Fernandez, Velasco, Saborit and Adrian were all subject to bids.
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SUMMARY
There are a few changes. I have a strong enough squad to field 2 lineups so here they are........
Ruffier
The legend returns, I love Llorente in this game beast of a TM even at 32 he will still smash them in. Congrats on the league, and whqt a result againt Barca!
A decent start to the season as Llorente marks his return to the club with a goal.
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Spanish Super Cup Final 1st Leg Real Madrid 4 (San Jose og32, Onazi 34, Aubameyang 42, Icardi 51pen) Athletic Bilbao 3 (Laporte 73, Herrera 75, Nieto 88)
We almost had the perfect comeback as Iker had a goal disallowed on 80min. Considering we were far frum full strength this is a decent result.
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Granada 2 (Bangoura 48, N'Djeng 66) Athletic Bilbao 4 (Laporte 16, 20, Griezmann 18, Muniain 56)
N'Djeng caused us problems last season when he played for PAOK - I will have to keep an eye out for him in the future methinks.
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Spanish Super Cup Final 2nd Leg Athletic Bilbao 2 (Llorente 61, 77) Real Madrid 0 (Athletic Bilbao win 5-4 on aggregate)
This was a pleasing win as once again we werent full strength against them but we had enough to overturn the deficit from the first leg.
On the field the start to the season was pretty decent as we won both league games and won the Spanish Super Cup. Llorente has been welcomed back with open arms and performed pretty well which bodes well for the future.
We were put into a really tough Champions League group as we were matched up with Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Shakhtar Donetsk.
Transfer wise, heading into deadline day I had no plans but my DoF did and I ended up signing a young full back for ?3.6m. View attachment 388914
Finally I made the English league playable and all of a sudden several regens have appeared (some worth over ?15m) so my England team will be changing!!!
(I made it playable to give an update from the UK - I have no plans of managing there)
Osasuna 3 (De las Cuevas 63, Toquero 66, Torres 87) Athletic Bilbao 4 (Llorente 33, 59, 90, Ibai Gomez 49)
We had the game won and then we managed to throw it away but Llorente struck in the last minute to get us 3pts and himself a hat-trick.
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Athletic Bilbao 4 (Griezmann 34, Muniain 43, Laporte 56, Azpilicueta 87) Sevilla 0
Sevilla had a goal disallowed which would have made it 1-1 but I think we would have won pretty easily anyway.
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UEFA Champions League Group F Athletic Bilbao 2 (Llorente 21, Muniain 63) Bayern Munich 2 (Kroos 30, Muller 40)
We renew our rivalry against the Germans in an entertaining match. Content with a point.
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Malaga 1 (Rescaldani 23) Athletic Bilbao 4 (Llorente 14, 58, 90, Ramalho 74)
A great win considering we were missing several players. We have scored 4 goals in each of our last 4 league games.
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Athletic Bilbao 4 (Llorente 15, Muniain 67, Griezmann 82, 85) Real Valladolid 0
Another 4 goal haul............
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Villarreal 1 (Rabello 86) Athletic Bilbao 4 (Griezmann 21, Herrera 45, 84, Susaeta 88)
And another 4 goal haul......
A fine month with plenty of goals scored as we seemed to score 4 goals in every game. Quite incredible really as out of 7 league games we have scored 4 times in 6 of them. Fernando Llorente has not needed much time to settle in on his return to the club as he banged in 8 goals this month.
UEFA Champions League Group F Inter Milan 2 (Belfodil 25, 90) Athletic Bilbao 0
We never gave ourselves a chance here after having Inigo Martinez sent-off early on.
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Barcelona 3 (Messi 34, 36, Sanchez 40) Athletic Bilbao 2 (Griezmann 18, Herrera 26)
This was not good. Especially after leading 2-0. Not happy at all.
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Athletic Bilbao 4 (Inigo Martinez 33, Laporte 85, Llorente 90pen, 90+2) Celta Vigo 2 (Rubio 41, Johannsson 67)
Somehow we managed to win this as seconds after we levelled we had Inigo Martinez sent-off (again) but Llorente struck twice in stoppage time.
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UEFA Champions League Group F Shakhtar Donetsk 2 (Dybala 45, Taison 86) Athletic Bilbao 4 (Griezmann 9, Iker 70, 80, Benat 76pen)
Iker changed the game for us here as he came on and scored twice and picked up the MoM award. Griezmann had a goal disallowed.
A peculiar month as we lost twice and also had 3 red cards in our matches. Other things remain the same though - Llorente is still scoring, Iker is still a supersub and we score plenty overall!!
We are top of the league and playing well so its all good so far.
NOVEMBER
Levante 2 (Fofo 28, 32) Athletic Bilbao 5 (Griezmann 6, Llorente 34, 73pen, Herrera 40, Ruiz de Galarreta 76)
One better than usual as we scored 5 lol
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Athletic Bilbao 4 (Herrera 18, Ibai Gomez 23, Laporte 34, Llorente 38pen) Almeria 0
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UEFA Champions League Group F Athletic Bilbao 2 (Garrido 10, Susaeta 26) Shakhtar Donetsk 0
I fielded my backups here and they did a fine job.
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Real Sociedad 0 Athletic Bilbao 1 (Llorente 37)
This was a typical derby match - very tight and very tough. In the end our only shot on target in the game got us the win.
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UEFA Champions League Group F Bayern Munich 2 (Lewandowski 25, Konoplyanka 50) Athletic Bilbao 1 (Laporte 23)
This defeat means we have to beat Inter Milan in the final group game to qualify for the next round.
This was a tough month but we navigated ourselves through it quite well. We are still top of the league but in Europe we may not make it through the Champions League group stages and end up in the Europa League which I wouldnt be too unhappy about in a perverse way.
DECEMBER
Mallorca 0 Athletic Bilbao 2 (Llorente 34, Griezmann 70)
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Athletic Bilbao 1 (Melillo og84) Real Madrid 1 (Suarez 51)
Not a great performance but a decent result.
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Copa del Rey 4th Round 1st Leg
Pena Deportiva 0 Athletic Bilbao 5 (Iker 7, 25, 69pen, 81, Susaeta 14)
As expected I played my backups here and they won easily. Iker will have to get a run in the side soon methinks.
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UEFA Champions League Group F Athletic Bilbao 1 (Griezmann 42) Inter Milan 1 (Belfodil 52)
We get knocked out of the Champions League here and I dont know how. We had 28 attempts and 13 on target while managerless Inter mustered 6 attempts and still managed to escape with a point.
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Copa del Rey 4th Round 2nd Leg Athletic Bilbao 6 (Guillermo 16, 45, Iker 31, 37, 66, Bragana 82)
Pena Deportiva 0 (Athletic Bilbao win 11-0 on aggregate)
Very easy - Iker, Guillermo and Susaeta were on fire here.
This month was decent enough but there was disappointment as we failed to qualify from our Champions League group. The good thing about that though is that I expect us to win the Europa league and I will be able to play my youngsters a lot more.
In the Europa League we will face Viktoria Plzen while in the Copa del Rey we will come up against Barcelona.
The draw for the World Cup happened and my England side were put in a tough group alongside Japan, Colombia and France.
Athletic Bilbao 2 (Herrera 17, Llorente 40) Real Betis 1 (Rolan 89)
Ruffier got injured in training so Inaki Aizpurua made his debut in goal for us here.
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Copa del Rey 5th Round 1st Leg Barcelona 4 (Deulofeu 13, Messi 18, Neymar 35, 45) Athletic Bilbao 2 (Llorente 37, Muniain 90)
We were defeated but considering we had a man sent-off and they had 2 goals disallowed I think we got away with it here.
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Atletico Madrid 1 (Leo 3) Athletic Bilbao 1 (Llorente 35)
Another tough match - pleased to get a point.
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Copa del Rey 5th Round 2nd Leg Athletic Bilbao 1 (Muniain 29) Barcelona 1 (Messi 78) (Barcelona win 5-3 on aggregate)
An early exit from the Spanish Cup. We definately deserved to win the game but whether our deserved winning margin would be enough nobody knows. RDG got injured and is out for 3 months.
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Valencia 0 Athletic Bilbao 3 (Muniain 11, 73, Guillermo 18)
A fantastic result this - I would have happily taken a draw.
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Athletic Bilbao 3 (Guillermo 2, Laporte 25, Griezmann 85) Osasuna 2 (De las Cuevas 7, 21)
This month saw us being eliminated from the Copa del Rey by Barcelona which was a disappointment but our time will come when we can go into games against Barca expecting to win.
The injury to Ruiz de Galarreta has opened up a few questions. Do I play Lucas or Nieto or do I drop Herrera back in and play Guillermo. Think I may do the latter.........
Guillermo won the European Golden Boy award at the start of the month.
