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Pre-season (2024/25)


bowlingcrofty

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Also class that Raul Garcia scored. 36 years old and still going strong. Just looked at his Wiki page and he's only made less than 29 league appearances once since the 05/06 season. Incredible.

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3 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

Also class that Raul Garcia scored. 36 years old and still going strong. Just looked at his Wiki page and he's only made less than 29 league appearances once since the 05/06 season. Incredible.

Bilbao are my favourite club other than the obvious.  Just the fact you have to be Basque to play for them.  One hell of an academy and they always do ok or well.

 

I don't think a lot of people know they aren't just some mid level Spanish club.

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Just now, relámpago blanco said:

Bilbao are my favourite club other than the obvious.  Just the fact you have to be Basque to play for them.  One hell of an academy and they always do ok or well.

 

I don't think a lot of people know they aren't just some mid level Spanish club.

 

Yep, they are part of the true big 3 in La Liga. Never been relegated, always top flight, and some true success in their past. The fact they're still competitive with their selection policy in today's economic football landscape is incredible. And even more so when you consider that the best Basque players often don't play for them, Azpilicueta, Arrizabalaga, (Chelsea love a Basque eh?), Laporte, Monreal and further back Xabi Alonso, Fernando Llorente etc.

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10 minutes ago, relámpago blanco said:

Bilbao are my favourite club other than the obvious.  Just the fact you have to be Basque to play for them.  One hell of an academy and they always do ok or well.

 

I don't think a lot of people know they aren't just some mid level Spanish club.

Don’t have to be Basque - just come through a Basque youth team. Aymeric Laporte became the first Frenchman to graduate from Athletic’s youth system in 2012, was not born in the French Basque region and his only connection is a blood link from his great-grandparents.

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Guest neesy111
6 minutes ago, Kanji said:

Has there ever been bother for them to change the policy?

 

They had to change it under franco dictatorship.

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47 minutes ago, joeyt said:

He looked a tad off the pace but loved seeing Muniain again. Love a diminutive continental number 10


 

He was class under Bielsa when he was there. They were incredibly fun to watch back then too, which is no surprise.

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1 minute ago, Manxst said:

Don’t have to be Basque - just come through a Basque youth team. Aymeric Laporte became the first Frenchman to graduate from Athletic’s youth system in 2012, was not born in the French Basque region and his only connection is a blood link from his great-grandparents.

Apologies. Impressive though. 

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Just now, relámpago blanco said:

Apologies. Impressive though. 

No need mate- had to Google it myself. Yeah, it is. Although these days there are a few mumurs about it being discriminatory 

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2 minutes ago, Kanji said:

Has there ever been bother for them to change the policy?

 

I'm by no means an expert in their history, but not to my knowledge. It's a different culture over there, their cultural attitudes are 50 years behind us in terms of multi-culturalism. Some older fans still don't understand how they have 2 black players on their team.

 

The Spanish government and FA aren't exactly preachy (with what they allow Real to get away with, being effectively a tax payer-funded team), and it would be a pretty big deal to try to alter the policy of the principal Basque Country football club. And for those that don't agree with their policies, there's always Sociedad down the road in Donostia/San Sebastian who don't have such a policy. I think Athletic are pretty much untouchable externally with regards to policy changes, the Spanish FA/government just couldn't do it and it'd be an excuse for the more extreme Basque nationalists to potentially cause some trouble.

 

The only potential change or relaxtion to the policy i could envisage would be if it came interally, i.e. from their own fans, and with the culture being so entrenched as it is, I don't think it'll change any time soon.

 

 

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9 minutes ago, Kanji said:

Has there ever been bother for them to change the policy?

I have lived in Bilbao for 25 years and the topic of conversation has always been if they should change their recruitment policy, don’t think they will change it tbh.

Really think it is great myself, just sometimes wish they would splash the cash and go for some of the better basque players available. Merino was a prime example of them not going the extra mile…

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Just now, buzza said:

I have lived in Bilbao for 25 years and the topic of conversation has always been if they should change their recruitment policy, don’t think they will change it tbh.

Really think it is great myself, just sometimes wish they would splash the cash and go for some of the better basque players available. Merino was a prime example of them not going the extra mile…

 

They don't tend to sign many of the Sociedad players, I'd always assumed it was because of their rivalry.

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Mainz, Bilbao, and Atalanta all finished 8th in their leagues. Mainz we dominated the game, and if it was a competitive game, their winning goal would not have been allowed. We beat both Bilbao and Atalanta. Now I’d be included to say that finishing 8th in those leagues is round about finishing 8th in the Premier League. This should show that we will be competitive in the league this season. On top of this we also went blow to blow with Benfica, who would think will be getting to the later states of the Champions League this season and should either win their league, or come close to doing so. 

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