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.
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.
9.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑1 against Espanyol, and it could have been more.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Oihan Sancet takes the afternoon — 9.54
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Oihan Sancet provided it, and the 9.54 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Athletic Bilbao and Espanyol, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Marked 9.19 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Marked 9.13 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Aitor Paredes 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.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
1‑4 against Rayo Vallecano, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 8 of the 28 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Unai Simón was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
Marked 8.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Aymeric Laporte was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
9 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
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.
It finished 3‑2, and it was Gorka Guruzeta’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Athletic Bilbao.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Gorka Guruzeta was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.27. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mikel Jauregizar 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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Julen Agirrezabala knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
7.86, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Unai Simón was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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.
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.
26 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
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.
Nobody at Athletic Bilbao will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Unai Simón was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mikel Jauregizar and Athletic Bilbao agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Oihan Sancet was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.91. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nico Williams signs something — a contract at Athletic Bilbao or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Marked 8.92. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Athletic Bilbao.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Aitor Paredes 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.
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Unai Simón was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oihan Sancet. 1‑0 against Valencia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Villarreal held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Athletic Bilbao answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Oihan Sancet's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The terracesThe press cannot get enough of Gorka Guruzeta
4Edition
The Athletic Bilbao Courier
24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondentTriumph
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Oihan Sancet takes the afternoon — 9.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Oihan Sancet provided it, and the 9.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Unai Simón was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lucas Fernandes has just signed for Athletic Bilbao, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Marked 8.59 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
6 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Fernando Calero has just signed for Athletic Bilbao, and for once the answer mattered.
Sevilla paid $4.4M and Athletic Bilbao took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jaime Herrero has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Antonio Ramos has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Areso 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.
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Diber Cambindo has just signed for Athletic Bilbao, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Add another name to the list: Real Madrid have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Álex Berenguer. The answer from Athletic Bilbao has not changed — yet.
398 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Unai Simón was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The phone has started ringing about Urko Izeta again, and this time the name on the line is Albacete. Athletic Bilbao are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.