Success Comes From Within - An Athletic Bilbao Story

[Klippybo]

AUGUST

v
UEFA European Super Cup
Athletic Bilbao 1 (Villalibre 9)
Manchester United 3 (Rashford 6, 117, Carrasco 98)
AET

Lineup - Kepa, De Marcos (Fernandez), San Jose, Laporte, Goni, Merino (Benat), Herrera, Aranburu, Williams, Muniain (Hervias), Villalibre

My first defeat in a final!!! To be fair we got what we deserved and they even missed a penalty. Hey ho.

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v
Supercopa Final 1st Leg
Real Madrid 1 (Ronaldo 31)
Athletic Bilbao 1 (Goni 45)

Lineup - Kepa, De Marcos (Hernandez), San Jose, Laporte, Goni*, Merino (Iturraspe), Herrera, Aranburu (Arrese), Williams, Hervias, Villalibre

A good result but it could have been even better as San Jose missed a penalty and it hasn't been his 1st miss so I will now choose a different taker. Goni scored though!!!

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v
Supercopa Final 2nd Leg
Athletic Bilbao 1 (San Jose 66)
Real Madrid 0
(Agg: 2-1)

Lineup - Kepa, De Marcos, San Jose*, Laporte, Goni, Merino, Herrera, Aranburu, Williams, Muniain, Villalibre (Ruiz)

Another trophy is on the board here as we edge out Real Madrid in a tight affair. Hopefully our 2 tight matches against Real shows that we will be able to compete with them again in the league.

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v
Athletic Bilbao 2 (Williams 27, 81)
Las Palmas 0

Lineup - Kepa, De Marcos, San Jose, Laporte, Goni, Merino (Iturraspe), Herrera (Benat), Aranburu, Williams*, Muniain, Villalibre (Ruiz)

Easy enough - Villalibre had a goal disallowed too.

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v
Malaga 0
Athletic Bilbao 1 (Williams 8)

Lineup - Kepa, De Marcos, San Jose, Laporte*, Goni, Merino, Herrera, Aranburu, Williams, Muniain (Hervias), Villalibre (Ruiz)

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SUMMARY

A decent start to the season as we won 1 of the 2 super cups and kicked off the league campaign with 2 victories which is very important as we have a nightmare run of fixtures coming up!!

Regarding the transfer window I didn't have much to go for in bringing anyone in and I didn't really want to sell anyone but 2 of my top prospects have been unsettled as Barcelona bid £1.8m for Fernando Arrese and PSG bid several times up to £7m for Jose Maria. They aren't going anywhere!!

In the Champions League we will be up against Bayer Leverkusen, Benfica and Austria Vienna.

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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
AYMERIC LAPORTE
View attachment 94562

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[Iceman362]

Been off this for quite a while was very happy to comeback and read this klippy great work and as ever great read bud

 

[Graz Doz Trez]

Great story Klippy, I've been flirting with the Bilbao challenge for many years, but ultimately giving up. Congrats on your progress and brilliant work to bring the team along.

Some very interesting comparisons and differences in our styles though, I sold the likes of Aduriz (2.5m PSG), Susaeta (8.75m WBA) and Oscar De Marcos (13.5m Valencia) while employing a youth first policy in a wing back 5-2-3 system. After the first season I got 17m for Lekue from PSG (benefit of the system), and sadly couldn't refuse 13m for Benat. But those sales meant I could be super aggressive in the regen market, and also buy Merino - had to pay 15m. Have so far kept Iturraspe - rejecting a 33m bid in the late summer. I had almost exactly the same first season finishing 4th (on H2H vs Real Sociedad) and winning the Europa league, but got ejected from the Copa Del Rey very early on.

Beyond Merino and hoovering up as many regens as possible, my only serious acquisition to date has been this guy from Barcelona:

View attachment 88987

He cost 5m up front with 30m (yes, thirty million) over 48 months. It's certainly more than I wanted to pay, but ultimately if/when Williams/Munian/Villalibre leave, who knows if we can buy replace them. Here he is again four months on with a much better hair cut:

View attachment 88986

He hasn't being playing very well as part of an attacking trio of SS, but I'm trying to give him as much game time as possible, which has sadly been helped by Iniaki Williams tearing his ACL at the end of last season :-(

I think one of the best parts of the Bilbao experience, is you really have to concentrate and (arguably) manipulate the squad all the time. Keeping your stars is paramount. Munian and Williams signed new contracts reasonably early with much higher min fee releases, but Laporte and Iturraspe haven't/won't. My biggest advice to anyone wanting to take on the challenge, be patient, concentrate on your team and plan well ahead. Don't get down and give up if you're not right up there every year.

I'll keep an eye on this thread, very keen to see how your squad develops and the different things we do to keep the team near the top!!

Good luck mate!!