Basque-ing in Bilbao

DirtyACE said:
Thanks for answering my questions Klippybo. I have a few more questions but don't want to pollute your thread as it's not really meant to be a discussion about tactics or team talks. Should I send a PM or just post them in this thread?
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Just PM me. Will be on for a while but nhl 12 on my xbox will come calling soon! lol.
 
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(now the 2nd most famous thing in Bilbao lol)
(well maybe 3rd as Aitor Herrera is about too)

DECEMBER

Bilbao win FIFA Club World Cup
Manolo Jimenez new Bilbao B manager - Granada sack Roberto Martinez
Bilbao finish 2nd in Champions League group - drawn against Napoli
Spain get Cameroon, Brazil and New Zealand in upcoming Confederations Cup

Excellent (Monty Burns style) lol. Started off with a Javi Martinez hat-trick of all things but wasnt enough to top our group and have been drawn against the Italian champions. 2 derby wins were also had including a thrashing of Osasuna where we were 4 up after 9min! The Club World Cup wasnt a contest especially when Neymar (how he is still there I dont know!) got sent off early on in the final. Ekain Barandiaran is out for 3 months however.

UEFA Champions League Group F
Athletic Bilbao 4-0 Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Javi Martinez 3(1pen), Ugalde

Real Sociedad 1-2 Athletic Bilbao
Vadillo, Aitor Herrera

Levante 0-2 Athletic Bilbao
Garcia, Muniain

Athletic Bilbao 7-0 Osasuna
Garcia 2, Mario (og), Aitor Herrera 2, Ander Herrera, Vadillo

FIFA Club World Cup
Semi-Final
America (MEX) 1-4 Athletic Bilbao
Alfredo, Ugalde 2, Ayechu

Final
Santos 0-4 Athletic Bilbao
Barandiaran, Muniain 2, Cidoncha

Copa del Rey 5th Round 1st Leg
Valencia 2-2 Athletic Bilbao
Garcia, Vadillo

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
OSCAR UGALDE
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JANUARY

3 games v Valencia in a row followed by 3 v Barca
Bilbao 14 clear with a game in hand
Bilbao overcome first leg defeat to knock out Barcelona in cup
Bilbao B sell Olazabal to Espanyol for £1.4m
Aitor Herrera wins both World Player of the Year awards again (5 golden balls, 6 players now)

Hard month fixture wise! Sneaked past Valencia in the cup and got a fantastic win away to them. Was awful away to Barcelona in the cup but wiped the floor with them in the second leg. Was cruising against Betis when we went down to ten men and conceded 3 goals but Santano popped up in the last minute to win it.

Copa del Rey 5th Round 2nd Leg
Athletic Bilbao 1-1 Valencia
Muniain
(Athletic Bilbao won on away goals)

Valencia 1-3 Athletic Bilbao
San Jose, Garcia, Muniain

Copa del Rey QF 1st Leg
Barcelona 3-1 Athletic Bilbao
Vadillo

Athletic Bilbao 2-0 Barcelona
Garcia 2

Copa del Rey QF 2nd Leg
Athletic Bilbao 4-0 Barcelona
Garcia 3(1pen), Sanz

Athletic Bilbao 4-3 Real Betis
Sanz, Garcia (pen), Alfredo, Santano

Copa del Rey SF 1st Leg
Athletic Bilbao 2-0 Villarreal
Ugalde, Aitor Herrera

Granada 0-2 Athletic Bilbao
Garcia 2

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
FERMIN GARCIA
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easier away against valencia than at home whats going on there....... it seems simples for you now mate but still doing a good job
 
coco85 said:
easier away against valencia than at home whats going on there....... it seems simples for you now mate but still doing a good job
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Had half a team out in the cup games due to suspensions. It is rather too easy but because I have nurtured these young players I have an affinity with them so its not as boring as if I was buying the best players around the world. Still thinking of starting a network game tomorrow though but will keep the story going.
 
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FEBRUARY

Bilbao still unbeaten but draw twice
Bilbao through to another Copa del Rey final
Rafa Benitez sacked by Real Madrid - Walter Mazzarri comes in
Roberto Martinez takes charge at Deportivo
Bilbao u19s win u19 Champions Cup for 1st time

Decent month I suppose but the draw at home to Valladolid was disappointing. Had quite a few injuries in centre midfield this month so Ordonez Lopez has had a few games and impressed. Gomez Comas is doing really well in the u19s so he will be in first team squad next year and Ayechu will make way.
Deportivo appointed Roberto Martinez as their 3rd manager of the season while Rafa Benitez got sacked AGAIN! Mazzarri is the 4th Italian manager in the league, there is 2 Bulgarians and Portuguese, 1 from Scotland, Uruguay, Argentina and 9 Spaniards.

Copa del Rey SF 2nd Leg
Villarreal 1-3 Athletic Bilbao
Muniain, Hubert (og), Gomez

Athletic Bilbao 4-0 Deportivo La Coruna
Ugalde, Garcia, Santano, San Jose

Atletico Madrid 0-0 Athletic Bilbao

UEFA Champions League 1st Round 1st Leg
Athletic Bilbao 3-1 Napoli
Ugalde, San Jose, Muniain

Athletic Bilbao 3-0 Las Palmas
Ander Herrera, Garcia 2(2pens)

Athletic Bilbao 1-1 Real Valladolid
Perez Villarroya

Athletic Bilbao 4-0 Almeria
Garcia 3(1pen), Aitor Herrera

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
DAVID
View attachment 240970
(was amazing against Atletico and kept a few other c/s)

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MARCH

Still unbeaten in the league - 19pt lead!
Pathetic youth intake this year
Manchester City are Bilbao's quarter final opponents in Champions League
Spain win away in Turkey

Excellent month result wise with convincing victories in the league. Iker Muniain has finally found some goalscoring form but then again he has been stupidly prolific for a left winger in previous years. Sneaked through in Europe against Napoli as we played most of the match with 10 men but managed to win the tie on away goals.
This years youth intake was dreadful! Only 2 got contracts but both were strikers and werent that great - potential for B team at best. Have found a decent rb at Deportivo though and have snapped him up on a pre-contract. Incidentally in my 1st team squad there are only 2 regens in that came in through Bilbao's youth intake - Aitor Herrera and Jon Alonso.

Malaga 1-4 Athletic Bilbao
Garcia, Muniain 2, San Jose

UEFA Champions League 1st Round 2nd Leg
Napoli 4-2 Athletic Bilbao
San Jose, Garcia
(Athletic Bilbao win on away goals)

Real Madrid 0-2 Athletic Bilbao
Muniain, Aitor Herrera

Athletic Bilbao 3-0 Levante
Muniain, Garcia, Sanz

Athletic Bilbao 3-0 Sevilla
Barandiaran, Muniain, Aitor Herrera

Espanyol 2-3 Athletic Bilbao
Garcia (pen), Ugalde, Aitor Herrera

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
IKER MUNIAIN
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SPAIN

World Cup Qualifier Group 1

Turkey 1-3 Spain
San Jose, Garcia, Sanz
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APRIL

Bilbao wrap up title with 7 games to go but.......
Lose to ****** OSASUNA!!!!!!!
Manchester City beaten but Manchester United hold 1st leg lead
Deportivo and Almeria relegated - Bilbao u19s complete treble

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!! Having wrapped up the title with the win against Mallorca I was determined to get through the campaign unbeaten so rather than field a team full of prospects I mixed and matched a bit and ended up losing to Osasuna whom we beat 7-0 earlier (only rested 4 players)! Disappointing loss to Manchester United at home as Javier Hernandez struck twice so we will have to go to Old Trafford and get a result.

Mallorca 0-3 Athletic Bilbao
Vadillo, Barandiaran, Sanz

UEFA Champions League QF 1st Leg
Manchester City 2-2 Athletic Bilbao
Garcia, Muniain

Athletic Bilbao 3-0 Real Sociedad
Aitor Herrera, Vadillo, Alfredo

UEFA Champions League QF 2nd Leg
Athletic Bilbao 2-0 Manchester City
Garcia, Barandiaran

Osasuna 2-1 Athletic Bilbao
Aitor Herrera

Athletic Bilbao 5-1 Villarreal
Santano, Aitor Herrera 3, Alfredo

Real Valladolid 0-0 Athletic Bilbao

UEFA Champions League SF 1st Leg
Athletic Bilbao 1-2 Manchester United
Garcia

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
AITOR HERRERA
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Well done in the league again, unlucky with getting beat though, next year must be the year! Is a shame you don't have any good youth's coming in though.
 
stevenUK1 said:
Well done in the league again, unlucky with getting beat though, next year must be the year! Is a shame you don't have any good youth's coming in though.
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I do have a couple of great u19s (Hondo N'Dongo, Alvaro Rodriguez, Gomez Comas) but none from my own academy so to speak. Maybe in Aitor Herrera I got a careers worth of decent talent rolled into 1
 
wonderkid360 said:
Stupid Osasuna!
How the **** dare they win!!
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I know - was missing Azpilicueta, Garcia and my two cms so still had Aitor, Muniain, Vadillo playing which should have been enough. I suppose it goes to prove that I aint cheating as it wouldnt have been a problem to go back to before that game as I have it set to save the game weekly (not that anyone has accused me of cheating).
 
Never seen such good regens before. Keep it up lets hope you beat United :)
 
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MAY - END OF SEASON

Fantastic comeback from Bilbao to win Copa del Rey in extra time
10 man Chelsea beaten in Champions League final
Aitor Herrera, Fermin Garcia and David scoop domestic awards
Fernando Llorente announces imminent retirement

A good end to the season. The league games were a non event really and ended up winning the league by 20pts. Sneaked past Man Utd in the Champions League before making a meal of defeating Chelsea in the final who went down to ten men early on. In the Copa del Rey final we were 2 down at half time and were really struggling but made 3 subs with 20min left and scored twice to take it into ET. Real went ahead again but two of the subs Santano and Sanz scored to win the cup.

Fernando Llorente will retire at the end of the season. Will offer him a coching role. Will feature him in a special 10 years in Bilbao post after I have competed in the Confederations Cup.

Athletic Bilbao 3-0 Valencia
Gomez Comas, Sanz, Ayechu

UEFA Champions League SF 2nd Leg
Manchester United 2-3 Athletic Bilbao
Ander Herrera, Garcia, Muniain
(Athletic Bilbao win on away goals)

Real Zaragoza 0-2 Athletic Bilbao
Ordonez Lopez, Perez Villarroya

Barcelona 2-0 Athletic Bilbao

Copa del Rey Final
Real Madrid 3-4 Athletic Bilbao (aet)
Muniain, Aitor Herrera, Santano, Sanz

UEFA Champions League Final
Athletic Bilbao 1-0 Chelsea
Garcia

PLAYER OF THE SEASON
AITOR HERRERA
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(Bilbao player stats minus Llorente and Ayechu who hardly contributed)

END OF SEASON AWARDS
Manager of the Year
Spanish, European, Liga BBVA Player of the Year: Aitor Herrera
Spanish, Liga BBVA and European Golden Boot: Fermin Garcia
Goalkeeper of the Year : David​
 
Great end to the year. Next year has to be the unbeaten season! Looks like you got a good GK in David. Looking forward to the post on Fernando Llorente! Good luck for the up comming season.
 
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Well I have lasted 10 seasons in Bilbao and my trophy haul is:

6 x League titles
7 x Copa del Reys
6 x Spanish Super Cups
6 x UEFA Champions Leagues
1 x UEFA Europa League
5 x FIFA Club World Cup
6 x UEFA European Super Cup

(Not forgetting 1 World Cup, 2 European Championships, 1 Confederations Cup and 1 Olympics with Spain but havent managed the for 10 years yet)

TOP 5 APPEARANCE MAKERS
445 Mikel San Jose
444 Javi Martinez
434 Iker Muniain
432 Cesar Azpilicueta
420 Alvaro Vadillo

TOP 5 GOALSCORERS
227 Iker Muniain
217 Fernando Llorente
157 Aitor Herrera
143 Fermin Garcia
99 Alvaro Vadillo

TOP 5 ASSISTERS
223 Aitor Herrera
153 Iker Muniain
121 Alvaro Vadillo
104 Ander Herrera
97 Cesar Azpilicueta

TOP 5 TRANSFER FEES SPENT
£11m Cesar Azpilicueta
£11m Pedro Jose Cidoncha
£10m Stephane Ruffier
£9m Natxo Monreal
£8m Alvaro Vadillo

TOP 5 TRANSFER FEES RECEIVED
£17.5m Stephane Ruffier
£11.75m Borja Ekiza
£6.75m Benat
£5.5m Antoine Griezmann
£4m Oscar De Marcos

ATHLETIC BILBAO RECORD
P616 W459 D85 L72 F1,590 A571 GD+1,019 WIN RATIO 74%

TOTAL FEES SPENT £151m
TOTAL FEES RECEIVED £76m
CAREER EARNINGS £31m

TEAM OF THE DECADE
GK - Stephane RUFFIER
DR - Cesar AZPILICUETA
DL - Natxo MONREAL
DC - Mikel SAN JOSE
DC - Borja EKIZA
MC - JAVI MARTINEZ
MC - Ander HERRERA
AML - Iker MUNIAIN
AMC - Aitor HERRERA
AMR - Alvaro VADILLO
FC - Fernando LLORENTE

Substitutes
DAVID
Jon AURTENETXE
Oscar DE MARCOS
Jose Carlos SANZ
Pedro Jose CIDONCHA
Fermin GARCIA

Here is my career stats screen (overdue a holiday in 10 years surely)
View attachment 241283View attachment 241284View attachment 241285View attachment 241287

(Another special post to follow after Confederations Cup)

NOW FOR THE NEXT TEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!​
 
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Havent even started the Confederations Cup and have just received a big shock (this shock happened 5min after last post)! Just when you think the game is plodding along it jumps up and slaps you in the face! (I will say this at least it does not involve me serving Aitor Herrera divorce papers)
 
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