Football Season Guide

Last year, Athletic Club had a season of two halves. Under Eduardo Berizzo they were battling relegation at the bottom, but the arrival of Gaizka Garitano in December turned their fortunes around. Had the season started when Garitano took over as coach then Athletic Club would have finished fifth. It has been a very quiet summer at Athletic Club. As they have a policy of only signing Basque players, they never make much of a noise in the transfer market and have yet to bring in any players from the outside except from Cristian Ganea and Mikel Vesga returning from loans. Instead, they’ll promote youth from their prestigious academy. There have been some departures, but they’ve really only lost veteran players who were past their prime anyway. The squad isn’t, therefore, much different to what it was last season. There are some really good players throughout this squad and fans are optimistic now that they have Garitano as coach from the start of the season. One of their main strengths is their ability to counter-attack as Inaki Williams is so quick and so devastating on the break. They have a solid defence too, one able to win the ball back and launch these quick attacks from the back. One potential weakness is at the centre-forward position. Natural centre-forward Aritz Aduriz is now 38 and isn’t the player he once was, while Williams isn’t a natural No.9 even if he is often asked to play there.