The Return of Aitor Herrera - The Boss of Bilbao

  • Thread starter Thread starter Klippybo
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 467
  • Views Views 157K
images


PRE-SEASON

Had a busy pre-season and signed two of the main Basque players out there. It wasnt all successful though. I agreed a fee with Chelsea for Azpilicueta (£16m) but he wasnt interested and I got quoted £30m for Ruffier!!!!!!! I also couldnt agree a fee for Raul Garcia from Atletico Madrid.

--------------------------------------------

AIMS
Top four finish
Qualify for the knockout stages in the Champions League

PLAYERS IN
Two have come in for the first team. Natxo Monreal has been brought in from Malaga for £9m (£1.5m less than what I agreed to pay a few months back) and Asier Illarramendi from Real Sociedad for £7m. I was delighted to get Illarramendi as I cant normally sign players from Real Sociedad but he was transfer listed for some reason so in I swooped!
View attachment 282028View attachment 282029

I also brought in several 16y/o regens - Moises Bernal rejected Real Madrid to join us from Sevilla for £2.3m while all the others came in for much cheapness!
View attachment 282030View attachment 282031View attachment 282032View attachment 282033View attachment 282034View attachment 282035View attachment 282036

Finally I brought in a few 16y/o players on loan. I will hopefully get them permanently but if not at least they now have Basque nationality!
View attachment 282037View attachment 282038View attachment 282039View attachment 282040

TOTAL SPENT: £21m

PLAYERS OUT
Not much really. Xabi Castillo left for Atletico Madrid for £1.1m and he promptly got transfer listed! Carlos Gurpegi went to Racing Santander for £275,000 and Zubiaurre was the most notable player to leave on a free. Out on loan went Pol Balleste and Unai Bilbao as well as a couple of others.

TOTAL INCOME: £1.375m

SUMMARY
Decisions decisions but thats what I am getting paid for! I am pondering playing Muniain up front with Herrera at AMC and Illarramendi at CM but that would be a bit harsh on Aduriz after last season I suppose. Monreal will be my LB and Aurtenetxe will be cover for that position as well as CB. Finally I need to keep giving a few of those 16y/o players game time especially Artola, Vela, Viana and Bernal.

Overall I am quite content with the strength of my squad but we arent ready to topple the big two just yet - we are a world class striker, goalie and centre half short methinks.​
 
Done as well (lordmidichlorian).

How are budgets? Something to hope to sign those world class during winter?
 
Death Ball said:
Done as well (lordmidichlorian).

How are budgets? Something to hope to sign those world class during winter?
Click to expand...

Forgot to mention the budgets!!!! Got £21m and still have about £15m left.

Really there is not much else out there. Javi Martinez, Azpilicueta and Llorente are very unlikely to want to come anytime soon and I cant get Inigo Martinez, Griezmann or any other decent Sociedad player unless they are unhappy.

Its all about development...........................
 
Some good signings there, should be able to push on a bit more :) Just added you on steam also.
 
images


AUGUST

A decent start to the season methinks however we only seemed to play for 45min spells in the first 2 games but put that right against Barca in the European Super Cup.

I loaned out a couple of youngsters this month and made one more signing - a very promising 16y/o forward from Atletico Madrid for £1.4m
View attachment 282078

----------------------------------------------

Deportivo La Coruna 1-3 Athletic Bilbao
Muniain 2, San Jose (pen)

Decided to go for Muniain up top and at half-time and 1-0 down I wasnt happy so I lost my rag a bit and they responded well.

---------------------------------------------------

Athletic Bilbao 3-2 Hercules
Muniain 2, Illarramendi

Disappointed here as we were 3 up at half-time and in the second half we conceded 2 and they missed a penalty. Obviously our defensive troubles are still alive and kicking..................

-----------------------------------------------------

UEFA European Super Cup
Athletic Bilbao 3-0 Barcelona
San Jose 2, Muniain

What can I say???? We absolutely battered Barca and my 2nd trophy as manager was duly delivered. This trophy has more kudos with the board than myself though.

-----------------------------------------------------

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
IKER MUNIAIN
images


The transfer window ends in September after I have played Valladolid so will post a transfer update next post.
​
 
images

Goodbye................

SEPTEMBER

This month was hugely successful as we won all our games and that included tricky fixtures against Atletico, Sevilla and Valencia. Iker Muniain has been outstanding - I feel it was an inspired decision to play him up front and he will do so until someone better comes along.

Finally we moved into our new stadium after the final match of the month against Valencia and I brought in 4 youngsters on deadline day - Xose is on loan.
View attachment 282278View attachment 282281View attachment 282280View attachment 282279

---------------------------------------------

Real Valladolid 1-3 Athletic Bilbao
Muniain, Jaime (og), De Marcos

Muniain scored 5 times in the league last season - it has taken him 3 games to get to that total as a striker.

---------------------------------------------------

Espanyol 1-2 Athletic Bilbao
Muniain 2

Did I have a world class striker in my ranks the whole time? Lets hope Muniain continues to bang them in!

----------------------------------------------------

UEFA Champions League Group D
Athletic Bilbao 2-0 Parma
De Marcos, Susaeta

Lots of incidents here - they missed a pen, De Marcos had a goal chalked off and we played the final 20min with 10 men when Susaeta got taken off injured. Muniain might not have scored but he did get 2 assists.

------------------------------------------------------

Athletic Bilbao 3-0 Atletico Madrid
Muniain 2, Ibai Gomez

We absolutely battered Atletico here although all the goals came pretty late on.

-----------------------------------------------------

Athletic Bilbao 2-1 Sevilla
De Marcos 2

------------------------------------------------------

Athletic Bilbao 2-1 Valencia
Susaeta 2

Our 100% record in the league continues - cant complain! This was the last match at the San Mames before we move into our brand new stadium.

-------------------------------------------------------

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
IKER MUNIAIN
images


View attachment 282282

TOP TEN LIGA BBVA TRANSFERS SUMMER 2013[TABLE="width: 500"]
[TR]
[TD]NAME
[/TD]
[TD]FROM
[/TD]
[TD]TO
[/TD]
[TD]FEE
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Neymar
[/TD]
[TD]Santos
[/TD]
[TD]Barcelona
[/TD]
[TD]£43m
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Wilfried Bony
[/TD]
[TD]Vitesse Arnhem
[/TD]
[TD]Real Madrid
[/TD]
[TD]£19m
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Arda Turan
[/TD]
[TD]Atletico Madrid
[/TD]
[TD]Manchester United
[/TD]
[TD]£16.5m
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Toby Alderweireld
[/TD]
[TD]Ajax
[/TD]
[TD]Sevilla
[/TD]
[TD]£13.5m
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Ivan Rakitic
[/TD]
[TD]Sevilla
[/TD]
[TD]Paris Saint-Germain
[/TD]
[TD]£12.75m
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Hector Moreno
[/TD]
[TD]Espanyol
[/TD]
[TD]Liverpool
[/TD]
[TD]£11.5m
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Milan Badelj
[/TD]
[TD]Hamburg
[/TD]
[TD]Sevilla
[/TD]
[TD]£11m
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Augusto Fernandez
[/TD]
[TD]Celta Vigo
[/TD]
[TD]Valencia
[/TD]
[TD]£9.75m
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Pablo Sarabia
[/TD]
[TD]Getafe
[/TD]
[TD]Real Betis
[/TD]
[TD]£9.25m
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Alvaro
[/TD]
[TD]Real Zaragoza
[/TD]
[TD]Sevilla
[/TD]
[TD]£8.25m
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


​
 
WOW Muniain is on fire and what a great start!! Neymar to Barca too shiiiiiit loli
 
I agree, how are you finding putting teams away Klippy? I am struggling a bit to finish tem off away from home
 
images

Hello.......................

OCTOBER

What is this??? Defeats??? Me no like lol. We shouldnt have lost to Getafe and were slightly unlucky against Chelsea. In the Copa del Rey we were drawn against our feeder side Portugalete who arent even in a division so that was a good draw.

----------------------------------------

UEFA Champions League Group D
FC Kobenhavn 1-2 Athletic Bilbao
Ekiza, Aduriz

Rested my first picks and played a side mixed with experience (Aduriz, Iturraspe, Ekiza) and youth (Viana, Vera, Prieto) and we came through with the win.

-----------------------------------------------

Athletic Bilbao 2-1 Sporting Gijon
Muniain, Benat

Our first game in the new stadium and it was pretty forgettable. We even fell behind but battled back to win thankfully. 8 wins out of 8 now in the league.

----------------------------------------------

Getafe 2-1 Athletic Bilbao
Benat

And the winning run comes to an end. Getafe had an early goal disallowed and Monreal got sent-off for us late on and they promptly scored the winner. They only had 3 shots on target!

-----------------------------------------------

UEFA Champions League Group D
Chelsea 3-1 Athletic Bilbao
Herrera

We took the lead here but couldnt hold on for a surprise win. Never mind. Jovetic got a hat-trick for them and Susaeta got injured and is out for over a month.

----------------------------------------------

Celta Vigo 0-2 Athletic Bilbao
Herrera 2

Back to winning ways thankfully - 5pts clear after this match!

-------------------------------------------------

Copa del Rey 4th Round 1st Leg
Portugalete 0-1 Athletic Bilbao
Iturraspe

Completely dominated and had a goal disallowed but still disappointed not to win by more.

----------------------------------------------------

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
ANDER HERRERA
images


View attachment 282315
​
 
Ashleigh1984 said:
I agree, how are you finding putting teams away Klippy? I am struggling a bit to finish tem off away from home
Click to expand...

This season we have done not bad at hanging on but last season we were awful at it! Dont know why it has changed or anything - might go back to throwing the leads away....................
 
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If anyone who reads this can help me out that would be great. I am after a face pic of Markel Etxeberria as he looks a great prospect and he dont have a pic

images


If anyone can help that would be fantastic - I have not a clue how to make facepacks etc​
 
Here I attach another pic if you prefer it. View attachment 282328 (too small)

Okay, you have a facepak, so I'll tell you the steps to have it and look right:

1- Open the image in an editor that supports transparency. (photoshop, GIMP, PAINT.NET, these two are freeware and GIMP has a windows port). I'll use the command names from GIMP.

2- Select the white that's not his shirt stripes with the colour selection tool.

3- Layer->Transparency->add alpha channel

4- Delete the selected area

5- Resize to 180x180

6- Save as png (in GIMP you write the file with the extension, no choosing extension from drop down)

It's so easy and quick to do I've done with the pic you've posted: View attachment 282329

7- In FM enable show unique IDs option in preferences.

8- Copy Etxeberría's ID number, "ID".

9- Name the image ID.

10- Copy that ID.png to your facepack folder.

11- Go to the facepack folder and oppen settings.xml with Notepad.

12- Go to the end of the file.

13- You'll see a long series of files that have file paths and there's two numbers, the last in mine has the number 9997.

14 - Copy the last of those lines.

15 - Paste it in a new line.

16- Replace the numbre in both instances with ID.

17- Save the file.

18- You're done.
 
Last edited:
I got a story on the go Klippy, would appreciate any advice. Any good free transfers would be handy
 
images


NOVEMBER

This month was always going to be tough with fixtures against Chelsea, Barca and Real Madrid however I didnt think we would only win one solitary game during the month. Quite concerning really although we did play well in every game pretty much.

Sevilla, Mallorca and Deportivo sacked their managers this month btw.

------------------------------------------

Athletic Bilbao 2-0 Mallorca
Herrera, De Marcos

A nice comfortable win - made even sweeter by the fact that Barca lost 4-2 - we are 11pts clear of them although they have a game in hand.

----------------------------------------------

UEFA Champions League Group D
Athletic Bilbao 2-3 Chelsea
Muniain, Ibai Gomez

We deserved at least a point here - we went 1 down but did lead 2-1 midway through the 2nd half. Chelsea will top the group while we are on 6pts and Parma and FC Kobenhavn are on 2pts so we should still qualify.

----------------------------------------------

Granada 0-0 Athletic Bilbao

Monreal got sent-off (again) for us and they had Santander sent-off for them very late on but I suppose a draw is a good result.

-----------------------------------------------

Barcelona 2-2 Athletic Bilbao
Herrera, Aduriz

We went 2 down very early on as Iniesta scored both but we pulled one back just before half-time and wejust tried to stay in the game and then in stoppage time Aduriz popped up with a vital equaliser.

-----------------------------------------------

UEFA Champions League Group D
Parma 2-2 Athletic Bilbao
Iturraspe, Aduriz

A draw qualifies us for the knockout stage but Aduriz scored in the 91st minute to put us ahead and we still didnt win! Thats 4 games in a row without a win.....................

----------------------------------------------

Athletic Bilbao 1-2 Real Madrid
San Jose (pen)

We definately didnt deserve to lose this but in doing so we get leap-frogged by Real. We were 2 down at half time and although we dominated posession and had loads of attempts on goal we just couldnt equalise. 5 games without a win........................

----------------------------------------------

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
ARITZ ADURIZ
images

(nobody stood out at all but his last minute equaliser against Barca wins it for him)

View attachment 282333

Just noticed that I will not be on the leaderboards as I am using an edited database. Not impressed (although I do understand). Does anyone know if i can see how much points I have racked up anyway??​
 
Death Ball said:
Here I attach another pic if you prefer it. View attachment 282328 (too small)

Okay, you have a facepak, so I'll tell you the steps to have it and look right:

1- Open the image in an editor that supports transparency. (photoshop, GIMP, PAINT.NET, these two are freeware and GIMP has a windows port). I'll use the command names from GIMP.

2- Select the white that's not his shirt stripes with the colour selection tool.

3- Layer->Transparency->add alpha channel

4- Delete the selected area

5- Resize to 180x180

6- Save as png (in GIMP you write the file with the extension, no choosing extension from drop down)

It's so easy and quick to do I've done with the pic you've posted: View attachment 282329

7- In FM enable show unique IDs option in preferences.

8- Copy Etxeberría's ID number, "ID".

9- Name the image ID.

10- Copy that ID.png to your facepack folder.

11- Go to the facepack folder and oppen settings.xml with Notepad.

12- Go to the end of the file.

13- You'll see a long series of files that have file paths and there's two numbers, the last in mine has the number 9997.

14 - Copy the last of those lines.

15 - Paste it in a new line.

16- Replace the numbre in both instances with ID.

17- Save the file.

18- You're done.
Click to expand...

Cheers mate - I tried and failed miserably lol. Will have another bash later when my daughter isnt running about!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Back
Top