Football Season Guide

Athletic Club have never been relegated from LaLiga, but there were some in Bilbao who feared that it might finally happen last season. Their campaign got worse and worse and worse, before they ultimately finished 16th, their second lowest finish ever. It was clear from quite early on that Kuko Ziganda, the former B team coach who took the job after Ernesto Valverde left for Barcelona, wasn’t the man to get the most out of the squad, yet Athletic Club remained loyal to him and let him finish the season. Now, they’ve finally dismissed him and brought in former Celta Vigo and Sevilla coach Eduardo Berizzo as his replacement, which should mean an immediate upgrade. The squad is improved too. Athletic hadn’t purchased any players for the first team in the summers of 2016 and 2017 – partly because of their policy of only signing Basque players – and this neglect started to tell last year, which was why they signed centre-back Inigo Martinez in January, before bringing in talented players like Yuri Berchiche, Ander Capa and Dani Garcia this summer. They have addressed a number of areas of weakness, namely the full-backs and defensive midfield, and immediately look more dangerous. Iker Muniain’s return from an ACL injury is a boost to the squad too. With a new coach and an upgraded squad, Athletic Club can approach this new campaign with quiet optimism. The fact that they didn’t qualify for the Europa League last year means that they’ll have many more free midweeks this term and this could prove beneficial. They’ll no longer suffer the post-Europa League hangovers that had become common in Bilbao in recent years. Combine all of the above with the stadium San Mames, which boasts one of the most boisterous atmospheres in all of LaLiga, and Athletic Club are a team to be wary of in 2018/19. They’ll surely be much higher than 16th this time around.