Lhe renewal of Balenziaga is the last one carried out by Athletic under the presidential mandate of Aitor Elizegi and the sports management of Rafa Alkorta. The club opens the quarter of the dismissal of its current managers with little room for maneuver regarding the activity of the offices. Beyond what can happen with From Marcos, who owns his future and is in the process of reflection about the option of continuing in an entity that wants him one more year in the workforce, it does not seem that in Ibaigane they face more operations….despite the fact that Iñigo Martínez, an international, ends his contract in 2023 and Sancet (21 years old, an international in his category and on Luis Enrique’s radar) does so only one summer later.
The balance of the Board of Directors of Elizegi with respect to the first staff is with 5 signings made -one of them, Ezkieta, had an agreement with the previous board-, 19 renewed footballers since December 2018; 15 players stopped belonging to the club in this period and 7 promoted from the lower categories, Villalibre and Vivian being the only ones who did so after playing on loan away from Lezama. The figure could rise if Artola is included, who has only had minutes in a Cup match.
It draws attention that of the 5 signings made in such a marked period of time, two no longer belong to the club because Ibai and Kodro, who were the first to arrive with this directive, continue their careers far from Bilbao. In the The casualty list does not include Córdoba, who is on loan at Go Ahead Eagles, a club from the Netherlands that has already communicated its intention to pay the purchase clause which they agreed to when it came out last summer. The loss will be effective from July, already with the incoming directive.
The Staff variations, together with tax changes, have had an impact on Athletic’s annual budgets, that they have an increase in staff spending close to 8% because it goes from the 84.5 million euros that there were in the 18-19 campaign to the 91 of the present. in this mandate Athletic has had two coaches (Gaizka Garitano and Marcelino) that in the history of their starting lineups have similar data for the youngest and oldest team that they used in their matches in Garitano’s first year and Marcelino’s last. In the 18-19 academic year, the youngest Garitano team had an average age of 26.4 years and the oldest 29.3. This season Marcelino’s youngest Athletic has been 25.5 years old and the oldest 29.4.
The data for this period in the first template
- Signed players:Kodro, Ibai, Ezkieta, Berenguer and Petxarroman
- Promotion from lower categories: Sancet, Zarraga, Agirrezabala, Nico Williams, Nico Serrano and Artola, although he has only participated for a few minutes in a Cup match
- Promotion after transfer: Villalibre and Vivian
- renewed players: Simón, Nuñez, Yeray, Yuri, De Marcos, Balenziaga, Dani García, Iñaki Williams, Vesga, Raúl García, Córdoba, Agirrezabala, Vivian, Villalibre Sancet, Zarraga, Vencedor, Nico Serrano and Nico Williams
- Released Players:Remiro, Herrerín, Ganea, San José, Beñat, Iturraspe, Mikel Rico, Unai López, Susaeta, Aduriz, Guruzeta, Kodro, Ibai, Sabin Merino and Etxeita, the last two after transfer.
- Players without touching their contracts: Iñigo Martínez, Muniain, Sancet, Lekue, Capa and Nolaskoain
