The Athletic Bilbao Courier
The dugout29 May 2028
Gorka Guruzeta: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Market29 May 2028
Peio Canales returns a better player
41 games and 10 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Squad29 May 2028
6 new faces, and Athletic Bilbao are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout29 May 2028
When it matters, Jesús Areso plays
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.
Market29 May 2028
The shop window has Peio Canales in it
Athletic Bilbao have let the market know Peio Canales can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout29 May 2028
Peio Canales knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Peio Canales trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market29 May 2028
The Nico Williams talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Athletic Bilbao know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market29 May 2028
Íñigo Lekue runs his contract down
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Athletic Bilbao money.
The dugout29 May 2028
Adu Ares has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Adu Ares has written the date down.
In brief
- Boardroom The Athletic Bilbao production line keeps running
- Squad Good reports on Iñaki Williams
- Squad Nicolás Álvarez back in training