toma_akvinski

***thanks, wiki!*****
Athletic Club is a football club from Bilbao in Biscay, Basque Country, Spain. The club has played in the Primera División of La Liga since its start in 1928. Of the founding members, only Athletic, Real Madrid, and FC Barcelona have never been relegated. Athletic are historically one of the most successful clubs in Spain. They have won La Liga on eight occasions and the Copa del Rey twenty-four times.

They are known as the Rojiblancos or Zurigorri because of their red and white striped shirts and as Los leones because their stadium was built near a church called San Mamés (Saint Mammes). Mammes was an early Christian thrown to the lions by the Romans. The lions refused to eat Mames and he was later made a saint.

The club is known for its cantera policy of bringing young Basque players through the ranks, as well as recruiting top Basque players from other clubs (like Loren or Roberto RÃ*os). Athletic only signs professional players native to one of the seven Basque provinces: Biscay, Guipuscoa, Ã�lava and Navarre in Spain and Labourd, Soule and Lower Navarre in France. This has gained Athletic both admirers and critics. The club has been praised for promoting home grown players and club loyalty. Critics however see the cantera policy as exclusivist.
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TRIVIA

Athletic Club was formed out of two clubs: one founded by British steel/shipyard workers ( Bilbao Football Club ) and another by the Basque youngsters studying in Britain ( Athletic Club ).

Basque students also founded Athletic Club de Madrid , what is today Atletico Madrid .

The British connection is the reason for the English spelling of the name!

Club colors were originally blue and white stripes, but in 1910 Athletic (and it's Madrid cousin) reverted to white and red stripes, for one of the following two reasons: 1) the British founders were majorly from Southampton and Sunderland, and 2) red-white material was cheepest at the time, as it was commonly used for bad mattresses with plenty of leftovers. (Hence, Atletico de Madrid is nicknamed Los Colchoneros - the mattress makers)

Athletic are one of the few clubs who do not have the logo of an official sponsor emblazoned on their kit.


Why Athletic?

One doesn't have to be a Basque (though the national coach of my country is from Basque Country) or Spanish to have a special feeling towards this eccentric club. Defying the rules of the modern football (and politics?), Athletic Club still refuses to give up its tradition and allow non-Basque players in. What can be disputed as an act of nationalism and discrimination, today also stands as a self-destructive characteristics of an ex-giant, hardly ever to wake up if it keeps on insisting on its strict local rules (after all, the non-Basque staff and even the managers have always been allowed). Their arch-rivals from San Sebastian seemed to have recognized this threat and adhered to what may seem an even harsher discriminative policy - signing of non-Basque players is allowed for Real Sociedad, as long as the players are non-Spanish (at least up to recent years)! Athletic must be credited for not resorting to such an extreme.
Today, some 75% of Athletic fans agree that they would rather see their team in Secunda for the first time (but then, when does the spiral stops?) then a foreign player in a zurigorri jersey. And it is up to you, the manager, to please the fans and not let any of this happen. Are you skilled enough to lead this team, that struggled in the last season like never before and by the act of miracle avoided the relegation? No South-American scouting, no Mika Aaritalo or the best-player SI forums, only Athletic school and your ability to unsettle and snap some new Etxeberria from your fierce enemies. As for me, I am really looking forward for this challenge.


Club Overview

Founded: 1898
Favored personnel: Julen Guerrero, Joseba Etxeberria, Aitor Karanka
Fierce Rivals: Osasuna, R. Sociedad,
Other Rivals: Alaves, R. Madrid, Barcelona
Estimated Value: E40.5
Balance: E10
Stadium: San Mamés, Bilbao, 40 000 all-seater
Stadium Move: San Mamés Barria, estimated 2010 (SI missed this, u gotta edit)
Nickname(s) Los Leones (The Lions)
Reserve teams: Athletic Club B (Spanish Second Division B)
Baskonia

First team:

Goalies
Daniel Aranzubia
Gorka Iraizoz
Defense
Aitor Ocio
Luis Prieto
Unai Exposito
Javier Casas
Fernando Amorebieta
Ustaritz
Ander Murillo
Iban Zabiaurre
Asier Del Horno (on loan from Valencia)
Koikili
Andoni Iraola
Midfield
Carlos Gurpegi (banned for 2007-2008 season)
Inaki Munoz
Pablo Orbaiz
Javi Martinez
David Cuellar
David Lopez
Joseba Etxeberria
Igor Gabilondo
Francisco Javier Yeste
Joseba Garmendia
Tiko
Strikers
Aritz Aduriz
Fernando Llorente
Ion Velez
Prospects
Gorka Erana (MC)
Aimar (AMR, ST)
Urko (AMRL, ST)
Isma Lopez (AM/FC)
Iker Muniain (ST)

toma_akvinski

Analysis
The first thing to realize is that this team (and, face it, it hasn't seen (m)any changes in recent years) is significantly degraded compared to previous FMs. The reason is certainly their performance, as they struggled so much in 2005/06 and were on the verge of dropping last season. What hurts, though, is that the famous Athletic academy doesn't resemble, say, Manchester's, and that barely two or three youngsters will ever have quality for Primera, let alone the dreams of some superstars. It's gonna be hard, really hard. To make things worse, the financial state is pretty disappointing, and this God-given opportunity when Sociedad is in Secunda can hardly be exploited for stealing some of their players. Perhaps signing Del Horno (who has a modest loan-sell clause) and couple of solid (solid, nothing breathtaking!) youngsters, this is the limit. Hardly any money can be gathered by selling the players - what is worth is desperately needed, and what is not needed, nobody wants to pay too much. On the top of misery, the board has a four-year plan of challenging the title! I wish I could show up on their meeting and ask for elaboration on how on earth do they expect Gabilondo to ever match Ronaldinho's gang or some other Primera machinery.

On the good side - a new stadium is coming. It is not considered by SI (shame on you, SI), so I took the freedom to create a modern 56.000 no-expansion stadium ready to be inhabited by the summer of 2010. And, of course, the youth and the training facilities - this remains the Athletic pride. Perhaps, after a season or two of smart coaching and financial miracle-making, we can dream of Raul Garcia or Arteta (though, I might be considered a traitor in the latter case).

It's couple of weeks before the official start of the season, and I secured the signing of Del Horno (maybe a mistake, cauz I could have waited till the end of the season) and a must-have Roberto Cuevas (E300, has a strenth 2 though?!). I don't have a clue what to expect from this team (the leader, Yeste, is still injured; cannot test Orbaiz, he is still recovering), this is for me the first time in FM08 to be in Primera. At the beginning of season it looked natural to rely on 4-2-3-1 formation (irl, also), but with Cuevas and a couple of youngsters, a regular 4-4-2 (I will test fiora2 tactics that everybody talks about) becomes preferable. To summarize:
1) Goalies seem like the greatest challenge - horrible both in attributes and in pre-season performances. The prospect of Barcelona's Olazabal is a hope-giving fact.
2) DR: Iraola seems pathetic when compared to previous versions. He might even lose the first-team place to Exposito
3) DL: Del Horno, Casas, seem pretty reliable. Though, both right and left full backs are kind of forward oriented (I recall that I played 5-3-2 with them in previous FMs).
4,5)DC: Satisfactory is the best word to describe it. Who shall I trust most - experienced Ocio and Prieto, or youngsters with better stats (but with no much room for further advance), Amorebieta, Murillo and Ustaritz. Mixing sounds like a proper choice.
6,7)Wings: Ahh, again only satisfactory. I am anxious to see whether Yeste can play AML, he was always the best as a free-role AMC.
8,9) MC: This part of the squad, besides the full back, had always a significant quality. Though much less than before (Gutierez is sold and not that good anyway, Orbaiz is also not as good, and soon-to-be wonderkid Martinez will probably give me a lot of headache), it still looks very reliable and with depth. After all, we can always rely on Tico, for a few season that he still has, to bang a few from our half.
10,11) Lost the vet Urzaiz, and am wondering how Lllorente can handle a target-man role. Though he is still as tall as before, his jumping stat is now only 15. Aduriz - totally unpredictable player but one of my favorites, with a biiig heart. And, perhaps, daddy Etxeberria will again be doomed to play as a striker, instead of his AMR preferred position.

I will post you a month or so after the season start. But I would really be more than happy to see some other enthusiasts for this challenging team, and for your impressions, experience and, more than anything, advice. Furthermore, anybody with Primera experience in FM08, please post some of Athletic/Basque important impressions.

Cheers to the whole FM community

toma_akvinski

Four games into the season, and things are getting clear (and bright!). Two victories away, against Espanol (opening game) and Getafe, both of them sooo undisputed. At home, however, we have two draws, 0-0 both (Deportivo and rival Osasuna), it seems I need to loosen up at San Mames. Against Deportivo, we didn't have a single shot in first half, but against Osasuna, only their ex-ManU goalie Ricardo saved them.

Strategy
As mentioned, I am using Fiora2 tactic, with bunch of tweakes (nothing too fancy, only the reasonable ones, e.g., settings for playmaker and target man). It's pretty clear that this strategy is partly a heritage of FM07 (check set pieces, they are needlessly set to, e.g., near post flick on etc., whereas in FM08 the default is doing just fine) and partly of a closing-down bug of pre-patch game (fiora2 uses a lot of running with the ball, which is not effective with patch). Other than that, it's brilliant strategy.
It is just lovely to see how things function in this team so far. For example, keeping Tico on left MC (with attacking preferances): ball comes from the right side, and he's just waiting for that to bang it in from 30 yards with his left foot. Ooof, love that guy, although he's not a star.
First choice for goalie is Iraizoz, and I should really stop whining as he showed some good performances in each game.
Defense is also good, particularly the full-backs (so far, DelHorno, Iraola, exposito); the centre-backs do not look that convincing, but due to the defensive spell of fiora2, that didn't hurt so far.
Wings are fine, nothing special, Yeste is still out but Gabilondo is very solid. Thanks God, coz I don't have a backup for two of them, besides the kiddy Urco who I am still hesitant to test (although he's been pretty good in pre-season). Etchebarria is great as a wing, but has some troubles adopting the SC role.
MCs are fabolous, and I am especially excited by the wonderkid MArtinez, who I didn't expect to start playing that well already. Orbaiz started the most of the mathces, but was (strangly) injured in each of them during the first half!
Llorente definitely looks in good shape, love to haVe him uPfront. My fav Aduriz banged the goal in the first match and got sent off couple of minutes later, so he is still untested.

Great scouting team (including Iribar, the club legend), solid coaches

Watch out: I have Etcebarria as a target man also, second in line after Lllorente, but when it's his turn, I use run-onto-ball. However, match-engine has a different approach, and treats any TM in the list as the current TM. For example, Etchebarria had more headers at one time than Llorente! Thus, I started to have a single TM in the list.

Boy, I had a whole mess with the registration of the players. It seems that's a reported bug, good luck with it.

real_betis

Great opening posts mate. Perhaps could've kept them all in one post but brilliant nevertheless. I shall definitely be starting as Bilbao at some point on FM08. WP mate :thup:

Scott1990

What's their transfer budget this year? I played with them a bit last year and was able to sign Mikel Arteta for about $20 USD. It was fun at first, but I grew bored after consistently finishing mid table.

toma_akvinski

Thanks!
Don't expect to buy Arteta very soon. Currently, it's end of September, we have E6.5 (using euros, as it's ouside of Brittain) on balance, and about E3 millions for transfers, after spending E3.3 on DelHorno and Cuevas and selling couple of not-that-promising youngsters. But the balance is steadily going down (no big matches, no significant ticket income as it's mostly on season tickets), and there is no room for wages anyway.
The way I see it now, the only way for improving the financial position is selling the players. I have pretty large squad, with couple of players that are really not that necessary. However, the money I can get for these fellows is imo less significant then the importance of a stable collective, so I will not push anybody out, if they don't want to go.
Sooner or later, I expect the scavengers to start unsettling Martinez - looking forward to see how I'll handle this.
As for the merchandizing affiliates, I am not sure whether a team like Bilbao can attract significant interest in US or Japan. Still, I will push the board and will let you know if it happens.
Oh, let me just mention a big mistake I made. I made Orbaiz a captain, and it provoked an avalanche of protests among the players. Half of the players stated that they would be better as captains. I was pretty surprised, as he has nice stats for a captain, but then I realized that Orbaiz has an ever-present desire for "a new challenge in the future" - that must be it. How silly of me. My vanity didn't let me change the decision and, luckily, after a couple of weeks, the rebels 'forgave' me for my stupidity.