What a difference a year makes - Athletic Bilbao

opr

By Graham Hunter

Thursday will see a sad and inappropriate ending of something both important and beautiful. When Athletic Bilbao plays Sparta Prague in the Europa League it will be the last UEFA match ever played in the beautiful, characterful and historic San Mames stadium.

Los Leones will have played 79 matches there in European competition by the time the ref blows his whistle for full time -- so far losing a mere six times -- but their move to the new stadium just a few metres away means that this is goodbye after 56 years.

Manchester United have twice lost there, most spectacularly 5-3 during an atrocious snow storm back in 1957 just a year before the Munich air tragedy, Juventus were the opponents at San Mames in the 1977 UEFA Cup final (a 2-1 victory being insufficient for Basque glory on the away goals rule) while last year's Europa League final was reached thanks to a thrilling but agonising (3-1) win at home over Sporting Lisbon.

What makes this sad and inappropriate is that the farewell will be 'celebrated' with last season's finalists already eliminated from the Group and sitting in 15th place domestically; little wonder when they are the most scored against team in La Liga while their best player has been scandalously sidelined all season.

Saying goodbye like this is as classy as turning up to your wedding with an ex-girlfriend on your arm.

Of course, progress isn't a bad thing and this is not a romantic, rose-tinted plea to stay at the San Mames. When the new San Mames Barria stadium opens, it will be a contender to host UEFA finals and hopefully it will one day host Olympic or World Cup football (as it did when England and France met at Spain '82). Overall it should offer much more modern facilities to both players and fans alike.

But the contrast between the final UEFA game of last season and this one offers a stark glimpse of how far and how fast things have declined.

Indeed to quote the Cole Porter number 'Every Time We Say Goodbye,' it's a case of 'how strange the change... from major to minor'.

It's not often that I've been at a more passionate, noisy and proud display of fan support than at San Mames last April when Sporting Lisbon were defeated 4-3 on aggregate in a terrific Europa League semi final.

Fernando Llorente, who worked himself into the ground and provided two goal assists, squeezed home the winner with two minutes left and while he was too tearful to speak very much until significantly later in the night, I'd be surprised if many of the Athletic supporters who were there that night could speak for several days, so hoarsely did they roar the Altza Gaztiak club 'hymn.'

Athletic had a golden generation. The team was fit and skilled, the crowd was umbilically linked to every effort, every metre run and every drop of sweat. Something magical was happening.

Now they are out of Europe, three points off relegation and conceding more than two goals per game in Spain. Part of the reason Javi Martinez is at Bayern Munich is that he was sick of working under Marcelo Bielsa. The players feel run off their feet and injuries have sprung up like weeds in an untended garden. Fernando Amorebieta is out of contract at the end of the season and I sincerely doubt he'll resign. Ditto for Llorente. So little has the striker to lose that on Monday he held a press conference to state, crystal clear, that no matter what the club offered him now, his decision to leave at the end of the season was final.

If both leave for free then given Athletic's policy of only signing Basques, the loss of income that implies is utterly scandalous in terms of the club's forward planning, management and general realism. Funds for youth development, scouting and the development of the nine figure investment in the new stadium would have been of huge benefit.

While all this has been happening Llorente, the club's 115-goal striker, has been given only bits and pieces of minutes in Europe and a mere 375 minutes of a possible 1260 in La Liga. Worse yet, most of his game time consists of bits and pieces, like his second half role against Barcelona last weekend when the match was already patently lost.

Yet when he does get game time, irrespective of being deprived of match sharpness by Bielsa's eccentric decisions, Llorente visibly makes a difference. He's had two full matches -- against Deportivo La Coruna in the league and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona in the Europa League. In the former he peppered the goal, only being denied by woodwork, and in the latter he scored in an away win.

Moreover, it's not simply Llorente's goals that this 'oh-look-there's-a-nose-which-my face-likes-so-I'll-cut-it-off-in-a-fit-of-spite' tactic is costing. The embarrassing haemorrhage of goals could partly be reduced if Athletic could defend from the front a little better and, more importantly, hold the ball up when it's pushed forward -- both Llorente specialities.

His striker partner Aritz Aduriz admitted as much on Monday: "when we are giving away so many goals I'm not going to claim that we're good defensively but we are all crystal clear that it's a problem for the entire team including the forwards."

I'm not arguing that Llorente solves all Athletic's myriad problems on his own. But whoever has been briefing the local media against him has done a job of real harm to the team's progress. Fans were booing him in training, during matches and when the Real Madrid support recognised him as a World Cup winning hero and gave him a kind welcome at the Bernabeu a couple of weeks ago it only aggravated the hot heads at Athletic who can now see no good in him after he acknowledged their generous support.

Perhaps at the hub of that particular ill-tempered reaction by some Basques who used to adore him is the fact that Llorente has always been a bit of a favourite for Real Madrid president Florentino Perez. Moreover, Llorente had Jose Mourinho's assistant, Aitor Karanka, as his roommate when the elder was in his final months as an Athletic player and the younger was just breaking through the ranks.

They are friendly and as of January 1 they will be quite free to talk about the prospect that fills most hardcore Athletic fans with still more loathing than a great San Mames legend signing for Real Sociedad or Barcelona -- one signing for Madrid.

Karanka completed such a move -- Athletic to Real Madrid -- back in 1997 and admitted at the time "even my parents and my brothers have asked me what I'm doing signing for Madrid." There's a queue for Llorente, however, with Juventus, Borussia Dortmund, Spurs, Liverpool and Arsenal all standing in the way of the Spanish champions.

Recognise the theme? Teams of top quality, champion teams, all around Europe want to sign this affable, hard working, reliable and talented 27-year-old. But Bielsa the genius won't give him more than crumbs.

Meanwhile Valencia, through to the next round in the Champions League and significantly better off in La Liga than Athletic, sack their coach and appoint Ernesto Valverde.

Valverde was both a well-liked player for Athletic and a coach of some note at San Mames. Had the Athletic board decided that Bielsa's ability to alienate his players and run them to exhaustion might just be too much to stomach between now and the end of the season then Valverde, a good option to succeed him, might now now be at the Mestalla. He might have come home.

Be that as it may, I wish the loyal Athletic fans a happy and romantic European farewell to their mighty "Cathedral" stadium this week. The club approaches it in a bad state and the damage is mostly self inflicted.

However it's never too late to put petty squabbles aside, to rediscover old love, to visit a favourite haunt and to start all over again. Beginning with Llorente, who should be the first name on the team sheet for the rest of this already strange and dark season.

Opr

Morf

Sid Lowe seemed to think players weren't prepared to work as hard as Bielsa wants them to work year after year. They just burn out. That and losing Martinez and the inability to get in new players to match their ambitions. It was pretty predictable.

Lawrence1895

All the travesty about Martinez was a key factor indeed...and never forget Llorente. I have a mate in Germany, he is of Basque origin, he calls them traitors and burnt his Llorente jersey

Francie Barrett

Llorente was Bilbao's top scorer for the last 6 years, it was scandalous that he was dropped.

Lawrence1895

Francie Barrett wrote: »

Llorente was Bilbao's top scorer for the last 6 years, it was scandalous that he was dropped.

That's right, but didn't he refuse to join a training camp in the first place?