Athletic hit rock bottom and suffered one of the most humiliating defeats in recent times against the recently promoted team from Cadiz. Things have changed, and a lot, for both and in less than 30 days, eight games. Three of which will be against our rival last night, Levante.
In 2012 we reached two finals at the cost of squeezing our headlines and getting blown. It was essential in each round played to put the maximum: it was the toll to pay. Otherwise, possibly in the league our position would have been better, but nothing we experienced on nights like Manchester or the complete tie against Schalke 04 or Sporting de Portugal would have been surpassed. Athletic fought everything and came out with everything. Our resources weren't enough to target so many targets.
The times are different. Technical and I guess recipe, too. The possibility of making history and finding yourself in a similar position requires memory and remembering past mistakes. We must prioritize moments and objectives, dose and get the most out of players who are also part of the first team, as well as those of the subsidiary that may be occasionally necessary.
The Ibai, Iñigo Vicente, the recently renovated Zarraga, that neither will be able to play with the subsidiary, surely they can be, to a greater or lesser extent, useful and necessary. Even if it is to give rest to those who must arrive as shots to the first half of April.
There will be moments, like last Sunday against Valencia, where it will be impossible to put the gala line-up because they are intermediate appointments between key games. But, as is the classification, believing that we should always be in the first half of it, the most feasible way to be in Europe next year and give immense joy to the fans, comes via the Cup. This is where our artillery must be spent.
Matches such as Cádiz should be, on the contrary, those where we fight for the points that give relief, mark distance with those below and allow us to focus without stress on the objective: hopefully two appointments with a title in Seville.
-Bilbao Basket-
Example of manual. Economic slab of the past that currently deprives current managers of resources to create a top-level workforce that allows them to live without risks. Bilbao Basket needs to hold out while it liquidates financial burdens to have a larger budget and margin to sign players. After that, it may be that team that hooked and competed at levels that its economy did not allow again.
A crossing of the desert in which it is about surviving and saving oneself, unfortunately without the oil slick, without the ‘Miribilla effect’.
Alex Mumbrú and yours deserve the best and a bit of luck. Hopefully the injuries respect them and get another team in trouble. With no margin for error, we must avoid the ghost of the LEB. It would be a terrible blow to the project's waterline.
Eight teams in four wins. During the cup break, to reset and prepare what is coming. Matches against direct opponents can be the key. Like the final of our Athletic Cup, there is another in basketball against the neighbors. In two weeks. It can only be one. Good luck Alex!
If nothing goes wrong, here in seven days.