Ernest Valverde He is the coach chosen by two of Athletic’s presidential candidates. So much Ricardo Barkala as Jon Uriarte They have opted for the coach from Viandar de la Vera to lead the men’s first team in case they win the elections that are held this Friday.
It is, without a doubt, a safe bet. This has been shown by Txingurri in all the teams he has played for, especially in the rojiblanco team, where he left a great mark in his two previous stages. He is the coach with the most games played throughout all of red and white history, with 307. They are followed by Xavier Clement (289), Mr. Pentland y Juan Urkizuboth with 241.
Valverde promoted from Bilbao Athletic to the first team in the 2003-04 season to finish the League in fifth position and achieve a European place. The following year he left the team in ninth place and reached the semifinals of the Cup. Betis went through to the final thanks to their better success in the penalty shootout played at the Benito Villamarín after the lions had been superior in the overall calculation of the tie.
Txingurri left Bilbao to lead Espanyol in the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons and Olympiacos in the following. In Greece he began to carve out another of his great careers. It was not in vain that he was league champion three times with the Hellenic team and added two Cup championships. In between he directed Villarreal, his darkest stage on the bench, to later take charge of Valencia in the second part of the 2012-13 academic year .
Valverde won the Super Cup in 2015, the first title in 31 years after winning the Cup in 1984
De Mestalla returned to Botxo to manage Athletic for four seasons after two years with Marcelo Bielsa responsible, curiously the coach chosen by the other candidate for Ibaigane’s chair, Iñaki Arechabaleta. One of the two will take over from Marcelino on the San Mamés bench.
They were four very fruitful years, especially the first. Valverde placed the team in fourth position after defeating Barça on matchday fifteen (1-0) and did not leave that position until the end. It has been Athletic’s best league classification in the last 24 seasons, since 1997-98, when the team was runner-up with Luis Fernandez of technician.
The following year he left the team in seventh place, played in the Champions League group stage and fell to the Europa League, where he was eliminated by Torino in the round of 32.
Txingurri ranked the lions in fifth position in the 2015-16 campaign and, above all, made them champion of the Super Cup with that hat trick from Aritz Aduriz in the first leg played in San Mamés. It was the first title in 31 years after the Cup won in 1984 against Barça in Maradona y Schuster. The team finished in seventh place the following season and Valverde said agur to take charge of Barça from Messi and company. He was there for two and a half seasons, with two Leagues, a Cup and a Spanish Super Cup to his credit. In January 2020 he had to leave the culé bench in one of the most unfair dismissals in recent memory, with the leading team in the regularity tournament and first in their Champions group. Quique Setién took over. With the passage of time, a very little steely decision has been verified. This has been the last destination of him on a bench.
His last destination has been Barça, where he was dismissed as leader of the League
Afterwards, he took a period of rest that he took advantage of to dedicate himself to his great hobby, photography, until he accepted the offer of Barkala y Uriarte to opt for a new adventure in Athletic, the team that made him a professional player.
Valverde can boast of large numbers in Bilbao. His balance is 140 wins, 69 draws and 98 losses in the 307 games in charge of the lions. He has added a 45% win rate. The background in the League is 101 wins, 54 draws and 73 losses to add 44.2% of the points put into play in 228 games. On Friday at eleven o’clock at night we will know if he becomes the coach for the next season or the partners opt for Bielsa.