Two goals and a mark of 9.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Athletic Bilbao can pretend not to have heard.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Ryunosuke Sato, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.85
A mark of 7.85 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Athletic Bilbao this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match13 May 2028
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Athletic Bilbao. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Athletic Bilbao will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Stanislav Agkatsev wants continental football; whether Athletic Bilbao can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Athletic Bilbao will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ryunosuke Sato did not need any: 7.99, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
14 goals in 35 games at Arenteiro — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Athletic Bilbao updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aitor Paredes is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Ryunosuke Sato, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.71
A mark of 7.71 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A 1‑0 win over Racing Santander, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Athletic Bilbao pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aitor Paredes is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Nico Williams
The offer from Villarreal for Álex Berenguer was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.84 for the rest of it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Elia Caprile has just signed for Athletic Bilbao, and for once the answer mattered.
$100.0K on the table at Girona. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$290.0K was the most the club would pay and Barcelona were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético Madrid have kept their man, and Athletic Bilbao go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ryunosuke Sato has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
In brief
Player ratingsNico Williams was on a different afternoon to everybody else
SquadWords at Athletic Bilbao training over how hard people work
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Txus Vizcay’s exile
Two goals and a mark of 8.83 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Athletic Bilbao have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Athletic Bilbao, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Stanislav Agkatsev wants continental football; whether Athletic Bilbao can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Victor Osimhen signs something — a contract at Athletic Bilbao or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Athletic Bilbao, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Athletic Bilbao would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Athletic Bilbao lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A 2‑0 win over Cultural Leonesa, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.61, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Ryunosuke Sato, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.68
A mark of 7.68 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Victor Osimhen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ryunosuke Sato has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Victor Osimhen. 1‑0 against Girona, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Nico Williams at his very best
Player ratingsÁlex Berenguer was on a different afternoon to everybody else
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Angel Vega, and the manager let it.
Squad10 May 2027
Hugo Rincón falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Athletic Bilbao pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ryunosuke Sato did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Victor Osimhen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hugo Rincón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Athletic Bilbao pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Athletic Bilbao have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Alcorcón for Yeray was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Athletic Bilbao this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Barcelona is saying, and nobody at Athletic Bilbao is enjoying the guessing.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ryunosuke Sato has just signed for Athletic Bilbao, and for once the answer mattered.
He is 20, and nobody at Athletic Bilbao signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The phone has started ringing about Ibai Sanz again, and this time the name on the line is Mérida. Athletic Bilbao are listening politely and promising nothing.
Athletic Bilbao have gone to Dinamo Moscow with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$22.3M on the table at Valencia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Athletic Bilbao, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Valencia this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Peio Canales, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.08
A mark of 8.08 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Athletic Bilbao have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Oihan Sancet and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Two goals and a mark of 8.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Valencia can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Arnaut Danjuma and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.