Everything you are going to read here is the author's invention, that is, mine. And as in all fictional stories, there is something about it that is deeply true. It is, the other Thursday.
I know. Athletic number 25 is Iago
Herrerín. But in his day, when he reached number 13 in the serial that in these pages I do every week with Athletic players (except for the Cup finals and occasionally) I was wrong in thinking that Iago was still with number 13 and Jokin
Ezkieta it was the 25th. Wrong.
In his day I wrote about Herrerín when, let's say, it was Ezkieta's turn. It is fair, that on the day that the turn, for number, would be for Iago, write about Jokin. And notice that Herrerín is back in the news when what was an open secret was confirmed: he will not continue at Athletic at the end of this season.
I already said it at the time, and I repeat it again, I have not understood well how this matter has been managed, really. Probably because I don't have all the data of all the parties involved. In the previous one against Real Madrid he will have his tribute. May it be beautiful wherever it goes.
-Two games played-
Jokin Ezkieta, if there is no unexpected turn of Marcelino In the remaining games, Real Madrid and Elche, (I am writing these lines without knowing what happened in Huesca), will close the season with two games played. Two. The two in the Cup: one against Ibiza and the other against Alcoyano. And it is over. And honestly, security, security, the Navarrese did not offer me in those cup duels. Admitting that these types of matches can be a kind of brown for any player, more so for someone without official minutes.
Marcelino saw it coming and chose to give the rest of the qualifying rounds to Unai Simon, which for example Valverde, in 2015 with Herrerín, he did not do it and kept it until the final ahead of Iraizoz
. They were different times. Valverde used up to three goalkeepers. Record.
Returning to Ezkieta. There is a detail that can attract attention and I want to bring it to reflection. In the season in which Unai Simón, the starting goalkeeper, has been very irregular and with huge errors, nobody (or almost nobody) has considered a change in the goal. Which I think shouldn't have happened, even if the substitute goalkeeper had been Iribar. And let me understand the example.
-Contract ends in 2023-
Or if the substitute goalkeeper would have been different from Ezkieta, would the debate in goal have been more open? That is the reflection I want to reach and I want to make you think. Last season, for example, the Navarrese goalkeeper gave me a better feeling in the duel against Tenerife in the Cup and was even key in the penalty shoot-out to qualify for the quarterfinals.
Ezkieta ends his contract in 2023. If not, he leaves earlier. Those who follow him the most speak highly of Julen
Agirrezabala
, one of the goalkeepers of the subsidiary. But is it the competence that Unai Simón needs? The thing about the goalkeepers in Athletic always gives us something to talk about, even to be a substitute. It is not something from the other Thursday.