Valverde returns to the Athletic bench, Bielsa does not

One of the direct consequences of the election of Jon Uriarte as president of Athletic is the incorporation of Ernesto Valverde as coach of the rojiblanco first team. Txingurri thus begins his third stage on the bench of the Bilbao club. The Gasteiz coach appears in the historical ranking of the centenary history of the rojiblanca entity as the manager who has directed the most official matches: a total of 307 distributed between the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons and later in those between 2013 -14 and 2016-17, both included.

Valverde, who ended his previous stage in San Mamés to train Barça, returns to activity after being dismissed, curiously, as coach of the Barça team. Txingurri directed Messi and company in the 2017-18, 2018-19 seasons, winning the League and Cup in the first and the League in the second and surprisingly being eliminated in both in the Champions League, and was dismissed in the middle of 2019-2020. The Gasteiz coach has not returned to training since then.

Bielsa, Iraia and Sergio Navarro

Uriarte’s victory at the polls frustrates what would have been Bielsa’s return to Athletic, given that the Argentine coach was the one chosen by the candidate Arechabaleta. The new president arrives at the Ibaigane chair without a general director of soccer since he dispensed with the Mexican Carlos Aviña shortly after making his signing official because of some old tweets with racist, homophobic and xenophobic overtones.

Iraia Iturregi will repeat as the women’s Athletic coach, Sergio Navarro will be the director of Lezama, Xabi Arrieta the technical manager of women’s football and a director of performance and another of sports development and transfers remain to be specified.

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