Athletic Bilbao Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

Morf

Didn't see the game. 2-0 to Sociedad. Athletic confirm their reputation as bad travellers.

Dolph Starbeam

Its been quiet enought here lately, half way through the season and we are sitting pretty in 7th and were very unlucky to lose to Barca in the Cup. needless to say but Llorente has been absolutley brilliant so far this season, it is no surprise rumours are around that Real Madrid have already agreed a 30 million deal for him. I'm still surprised there has been no talk of Javi Martinex leaving the club either, he is such a brilliant player. also must say well doen to Muniain on scoring at the weekend, my praising of him has finally paid off :pac:


Half way league table



Half way scoring and assists

yabadabado

Martinez is top class imo ,have been very impressed with him anytime i'v watched Bilbao.Im sure plenty of clubs have made inquires about him,what sort of fee would be needed to buy him?

Dolph Starbeam

i would be sure Athletic could demand well over 20 million for him at least, its hard to see what european team would really need him though, i know he's very good but ts hard to see where he would fit in nicely.

yabadabado

MOG7 wrote: »

i would be sure Athletic could demand well over 20 million for him at least, its hard to see what european team would really need him though, i know he's very good but ts hard to see where he would fit in nicely.

I would take him at united.He seems to be a good box to box MF,would be able to play in a 442.

Dolph Starbeam

yabadabado wrote: »

I would take him at united.

Actually thinking of that he would be perfect there so he would, hopefully that won't happen but he would do nicely there imo.

redout

Bilbao are doing alright.

Would like to see them and Atleti push on and challenge Valencia for that remaining Champions league spot.

Muniain is a cracking lil player - remember watching him scoring at only 16 in la liga (remember headshot?) - bags of talent.

They have scored against every team in la liga this season bar sociedad - Barca the only other team that can boast such a record.

Dolph Starbeam

redout wrote: »

Bilbao are doing alright.

Would like to see them and Atleti push on and challenge Valencia for that remaining Champions league spot.

Muniain is a cracking lil player - remember watching him scoring at only 16 in la liga (remember headshot?) - bags of talent.

They have scored against every team in la liga this season bar sociedad - Barca the only other team that can boast such a record.

I seen that record alright, not bad for a team that isn't regarded as one of the better teams in la liga, if we improve away from home for the rest of the season anything can happen.

Morf

MOG7 wrote: »

I seen that record alright, not bad for a team that isn't regarded as one of the better teams in la liga, if we improve away from home for the rest of the season anything can happen.

Not regarded as one of the bigger teams? Right this very moment possibly not but they have a long and very successful history. If you check the La Liga wiki page you'll find Bilbao and past players have quite a few standing records.

I'm glad Martinez isn't being linked with Liverpool once a month any more. I hope he doesn't go to Real though.

I see the new Euskadi camiseta is out. I quite like it. Have they gotten over their row about the official title of the team that they boycotted matches over then?

Dolph Starbeam

Morf wrote: »

Not regarded as one of the bigger teams? Right this very moment possibly not but they have a long and very successful history. If you check the La Liga wiki page you'll find Bilbao and past players have quite a few standing records.

Well ye of course, i didn't mean it like that, there history is the main reason i follow the vlub, such a proud history... What i mean is that they are not right now regarded as a top la liga team, they really should be challenging teams like Valancia, Athleti and Villareal now though.

Dolph Starbeam

Highlights of the 2-0 away win against Atleti, we got lucky in the 1st half with Atleti getting a red card, Llorente missed the penalty though. A goal in each half from Toquero gave us a very nice 2-0 win on the road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNX1BeJw8NE

We stay in 6th place after that game and have opened up a 5 point gap on Atleti, could we possibly puch on for a top 4 place? Long way to go in the season but hopefully they can keep it up.

Morf

Saw that. Away win too! Very impressed!

Dolph Starbeam

After tonights win over Sevilla it moves Athletic up to 5th, a good result, an own-goal and a penalty by Iraola was enough for the win.





Before tonight 4 defeats in a row looked like it might have been disastrous for our push for Europe, thankfully it hasn't seemed to damage us too much




Llorente has been on fire all season too so nice to see him up near the top of the goal scoring charts.

yabadabado

good win tonight,Bilbao have a some very good players,hope they get the european spot.javi Martinez whenever I have see him has looked impressive,as has Llorente.Would Bilbao be able to hold onto them if the bigger clubs come calling?

Dolph Starbeam

yabadabado wrote: »

good win tonight,Bilbao have a some very good players,hope they get the european spot.javi Martinez whenever I have see him has looked impressive,as has Llorente.Would Bilbao be able to hold onto them if the bigger clubs come calling?

I'm not sure how much longer they will be able to keep them 2, the President says he won't sell them and the players themselves whenever linked with a move away say that they are very happy at the club and don't want to leave.

I can't see them moving unless it is to one of the very big clubs, as in i can't imagine Llorente would have been mad for a move to Spurs.

Morf

Mark! wrote: »

I'm not sure how much longer they will be able to keep them 2, the President says he won't sell them and the players themselves whenever linked with a move away say that they are very happy at the club and don't want to leave.

I can't see them moving unless it is to one of the very big clubs, as in i can't imagine Llorente would have been mad for a move to Spurs.

$36million is Llorente's buy-out. Real seemed to have cooled their interest for now. Barca were sniffing about too.

Martinez was linked to Liverpool about once a month when Benitez was there but i haven't heard anything in a while but the big two are always a possibility.

Good result for the Lions. I should be anti-Sociedad but i'm happy they're doing well too.

Dolph Starbeam

Improved again on last season and finishing 6th is a very good achievement, both Sevilla and Atleti had strong ends to the season so we did well to stay up there. Some very good performances but even with the high finish a lot of fans seem to be unhappy with Caparros' style of play. The table below on shows 5th and 6th qualifying for Europa League but I am pretty sure Atleti have qualified too, I could be wrong though.





Only failing to score on 4 occasions through the season is a good result, only Barca managing a better record, 9 clean sheets is maybe not so good though.




Yet again for the 4th season in a row Fernando Llorente tops the goalscoring charts with 18 League Goals plus 1 Copa goal. He also managed 4 goals in his 4 appearances for Spain this season. He has confirmed that Liverpool made an approach to sign him during the January transfer window, hopefully now with Liverpool not needing another striker anymore with the signing of Andy Carroll and the interest from Barca and Real seeing to have disappeared hopefully we can hang on to our main man.





In transfer News Javi Martinez last month signed a contract extension, great news for another of our star players.

Athletic Bilbao midfielder Javi Martinez has signed a two-year contract extension with the Primera Division outfit, the club have confirmed on their website.
The highly-rated 22-year-old, who was part of Spain's World Cup-winning squad last summer, is now tied to the Basque giants until June 30, 2016.
The buy-out clause in Martinez's new contract is €40 million.

The club have also agreed to sign 21 year old Zaragoza and Spain u21 midfielder Ander Herrera, he looks like a very good player, very nice technique and looks to be able to pick a good pass. He has also played a lot of games for Zaragoza for someone so young so hopefully we will get to see him come straight into the starting team. We will get to see him in action this summer for the Spain u21's in the European Championships, along with other Athletic players Javi Martinez, Iker Muniain and Mikel San Jose.

Athletic Bilbao have confirmed a deal is in place to sign Ander Herrera from Real Zaragoza at the end of the season.
The transfer was first reported last week, but neither club has been willing to confirm it until now.
"Real Zaragoza and Athletic Club had entered into an agreement for the transfer of the rights of Ander Herrera effective from July 1, 2011," a club statement said.
"For his part, the player has entered into a contract with Athletic club from the 2011-12 season until the 2015-16 season inclusive, with a buyout clause of 36million euros for the first three seasons and €40 million for the last two."
No fee was announced, but it has been reported that Athletic will pay two instalments totalling €7.5 million for the 21-year-old Basque-born midfielder, a Spain Under-21 international.

Not much else to add, hopefully our young players will have a good u21 European Championships and hopefully we will have another great season both domestically and in Europe next season.

Morf

Gora Athetic! Gora Euskadi!

Dolph Starbeam

With the 11/12 La Liga season only a week away I said I'd do just a small bit of catching up on what happened over the summer and what we might expect from the coming season.

First game of the season will be on Thursday in the Europa League Play-off against Trabzonspor. First leg on the 18th at home and away leg on the 25th.

Marcelo Bielsa will be in charge for the new season and is imo a great signing as manager, he will bring a new style and he will definitely be one to keep an eye on, many will know him from his time in charge of Chile where he did a brilliant job. Even with the 6th place finish last season many supporters were unhappy with the clubs style of play. So far we have managed to hold onto our key players who were linked with moves away, namely Llorente.

New summer signing Ander Herrera was a surprise star in Spain's European u21 Championship winning side, he really looks like a quality signing, Muniain also had a good tournament where he was the 2nd youngest player in the whole tournament and played afaik every game. Other team news and one that I am looking forward to seeing is 18 year old Ruiz de Galarreta has been promoted to the 1st team, he has been talked about for a couple years as a very talented midfielder so hopefully he will get some game time this season.

New Kit for the season is also available now (only place I can find it so far is off there official site and it will cost about €150 delivered so I won't be getting that any time soon as nice as it is)






First League game of the new season is on Sunday 21st August, a slightly tricky tie to start the season at the Santiago Bernabeu, after not having a great pre-season it is kind of hard to know what to expect, hopefully we will see a good performance on Thursday at the San Mames and just go from there.



Also can a mod please change the thread title from 10/11 to 11/12, I don't think it really requires a new thread for the new season.

Morf

The kit is lovely, especially the shorts.

La-Liga shop will get the jersey eventually but the shipping charges for the club shop are ridiculous.

Looking forward to see how Bielsa has them playing.

Morf

I do have a friend in the Basque Country who i could ask to buy the shirt/shorts for me but then she's a Sociedad fan . . .

Keep an eye on La Liga shop though.

Dolph Starbeam

Morf wrote: »

The kit is lovely, especially the shorts.

La-Liga shop will get the jersey eventually but the shipping charges for the club shop are ridiculous.

Looking forward to see how Bielsa has them playing.

Having read about the way Bielsa does not decide on a formation until he paces out the dimensions of the pitch himself has me excited to see him take charge, he is a unique character and I for someone who people say is the best Argentine manager out there I am very happy to see him at Bilbao. Whether he can change the style of play we will have to wait and see, Llorente is a very good player, probably better on the ground than he ever gets credit for, but with players like Toquero, Llorente and Muniain I am a small bit sceptical as to how Bielsa can change things, time will tell I guess.

Morf

The Athletic jerseys are for sale for €60 each for home and away in the Umbro shop on Westmoreland Street in Dublin.

I picked up the green/red/white away one.

Morf

Time to revive this thread then?

monkey9

Morf wrote: »

Time to revive this thread then?

I think so. I've always likes Bilboa in terms of them surviving whilst playing only Basque players. But what i really like about that club is their stadium. I know they're leaving it soon, but i absolutely love watching their home games on Sky.

Dolph Starbeam

Morf wrote: »

Time to revive this thread then?

I think it is about time, I've really got to start posting in here more often. I only got to see the highlights but looked like a very good performance.

Bielsa really has them playing brilliantly. Should also mention that Muniain made his Spanish senior debut last week, fair play to him, another brilliant display from him again tonight, hopefully Athletic can hold onto him for a bit longer.

kryogen

Excellent performance from Bilbao, intensity commitment and quality. The scoreline flatters United big time, no way there should be a ray of hope in the tie, but for De Gea that could have been seriously embarrassing.

Well done

mike65

arf!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVrlATO_hjg

kryogen

Yeah a word on the fans, havent watched that video, but the fans in the stadium were brilliant, club can be proud of them.

vicwatson

Really enjoyed watching them tonight, they are some fit team, and a young team too. Well deserved win. The front three were classico.

Dolph Starbeam

kryogen wrote: »

Yeah a word on the fans, havent watched that video, but the fans in the stadium were brilliant, club can be proud of them.

7000 Bilbao fans at the game I am hearing.

kryogen

Mark! wrote: »

7000 Bilbao fans at the game I am hearing.

The numbers reported were 8000, dunno the exact figure

Nuri Sahin

Around 8K Bilbao fans I heard.

vicwatson

They kept the home crowd quiet anyways, you could only hear them, but I suppose thats week in week out at Old Trafford:rolleyes:

The cardboard cut out fans like Arsenal

monkey9

vicwatson wrote: »

They kept the home crowd quiet anyways, you could only hear them, but I suppose thats week in week out at Old Trafford:rolleyes:

That's what away fans do! They're in high spirits on their jaunt. Whereas a lot of home fans turn up sober cos it's a normal home match! It's like any league or Euro match!

Paul Tergat

monkey9 wrote: »

That's what away fans do! They're in high spirits on their jaunt. Whereas a lot of home fans turn up sober cos it's a normal home match! It's like any league or Euro match!

Well said. Amazing how some people are so retarded they just dont see this

vicwatson

Paul Tergat wrote: »

Well said. Amazing how some people are so retarded they just dont see this

You're the retard.

vicwatson

-Ade- wrote: »

Around 8K Bilbao fans I heard.

Sky website said 4k and BBC website had it at 6.5k, so I guess it's take your pick - between 4k and 8 k !!

the realpigiron

Got a sister living in Bilbao that goes to see them on a regular basis. They are a unique club, more or less a de facto national team for The Basque Country. Great win for them at Old Trafford on Thursday.

legendary.xix

They had chances to grab an equaliser. Missed the first half. Based on second, thought the would've deserved a draw. Hope they'll do enough on Thursday.

Dolph Starbeam

legendary.xix wrote: »

They had chances to grab an equaliser. Missed the first half. Based on second, thought the would've deserved a draw. Hope they'll do enough on Thursday.

Was a great game, deserved a draw but Osasuna played well too, Muniain had a great chance in the 92nd minute. It was a great chance to move into 4th spot.

Out of all the teams I still think Athletic have a great chance for the final CL spot.

carlop

Mark! wrote: »

Was a great game, deserved a draw but Osasuna played well too, Muniain had a great chance in the 92nd minute. It was a great chance to move into 4th spot.

Out of all the teams I still think Athletic have a great chance for the final CL spot.

I think it's between Athletic, Atletico and Malaga. Atleti-Athletic (looks weird, I know) next week is going to be a huge game, especially if they both win this weekend.

Levante have kept up far longer than I thought possible, but I don't think they have it in them to maintain it all the way to the end.

Sr. Pirotecnic

the realpigiron wrote: »

They are a unique club, more or less a de facto national team for The Basque Country.

It would be truer to say they represent the province of Vizcaya - don't underestimate how much fans of Real Sociedad and other Basque clubs dislike Athletic. From afar they are seen, not inaccurately, as the plucky underdogs but within the Basque country fans of other clubs resent them for hoovering up talented players from the "hinterland" of Osasuna, la Real, Alaves etc.

Sr. Pirotecnic

As if to prove my point - Sid Lowe on yesterday's Osasuna-Athletic game:

"There was an argument in the directors' box too where the Athletic president complained about the ball boys. The reply was priceless: don't worry, they're youth teamers here so you can take them off us like you always do.

Lawrence1895

Hopefully, Athletic will put in a decent performance next Thursday and eliminate United. I would be delighted, if they can progress to the next round and meet a team from Germany...have a mate there from a German forum, who supports Athletic, and he would be able to support them not only on the telly

Dolph Starbeam

I really did not expect this before the 1st leg, Athletic knock Man Utd out of the Europa League 5-3 on aggregate. Another brilliant performance from start to finish in San Mamés. 19 chances created compared to Man Uniteds 3, and Athletic were expected to try hold onto there 1st leg advantage.

Where to from here. Europa League success is a very real possibility now, the teams entering the 1/4 Finals are;

Metalist
Sporting CP
Schalke 04
Atletico Madrid
Hannover 96
Valencia
AZ

There is still a lot of strong teams left so I'm not sure who I would even prefer, probably Hannover. With things so close in La Liga for the CL spots, 3 points behind Malaga in 4th, its hard to know how the small squad will cope.

MD1990

i really hope they make the CL next year

Morf

MD1990 wrote: »

i really hope they make the CL next year

Looking like the team will be cleared out this summer depending on how far they go in the Europa. I Imagine they'll not be up to too much next year.

Morf

Europa League final then against Atletico.

Gora Athletic! Gora Euskadi!

eagle eye

Never realised there was an Athletic thread. I'll post here some from now on.