Doyce7

Season 6: 2027/28 So in the summer, I didn't really feel the need to change too much. The only departure came in the shape of Ander Capa leaving on a free to Cadiz. He didn't play that much last season and figured to play much less this upcoming one so I let him walk and go find more playing time, in what would be his final season as a footballer. As for what I brought in... In: 19yo RW Jose Antonio Orbegozo from Tudelano for 165K, total punt, he might come good or he play just be depth for Bilbao B. 17yo R/LW Mario from Corduba for 2.7M, lots of potential with this guy, he might end up in midfield though as he is not the fastest. 16yo CB Yadel Blanco from Las Palmas for 450K, high potential and 6'2"(I am a sucker for big boys at CB). 25yo LB Javi Lopez from Cremonese for 2.8M, I have spoken about the need for a backup LB, He'll have to do for now. Lastly for the summer deals, 31yo RB Alvaro Odriozola from Monaco for 19.5M, I said I didn't want to bring in a 30+ RB over Arberas but I could not find a backup and so Odriozola will just have to be ok with splitting time. Trusting in youth: Inigo Martinez retired at the end of last season so I promoted young Artiz Losa to the first team to be my 4th CB, he became 3rd choice very quickly. I said I like em big, this guy is 6'3", I got him from an affiliate club a few years ago for 115K, what a steal. Inaki Williams was hurt to start the season so the starting job fell to academy graduate Lander Beitia and he never let it go, even after Inaki came back. He has been in the first team a few years now but this was his first season actually being the guy at IF on the left. Unai Vellejo continued to split time fairly evenly with Asier villalibre up front. Joseba Arberas split time with Odriozola. Asier Munoz was the main backup for Nico Williams. Beitia, Vallejo, Arberas and Munoz all came through the same youth intake, the first of the game, and there is still one other Inigo Seguin, that is still showing great potential but his development has been slowed by injury and retraining him to play midfield instead of winger. I ended up having 7 players under the age of 21 play 15+ times this season. This is why I love this save so much. I could wax poetic about some of these guys all day but I need to move on. Before I do, somebody got an award in January and I am like a proud father January shakeup: In January I felt like I needed to shake things up a bit Martin Zubimendi was complaining about lack of playtime and honestly I wasn't sure about giving him more playtime. In order to play him I would need to play Unai Vencedor less and that guy is a rock who seems to never tire. So when Benfica offered 36M flat for Zubimendi, I jumped at the chance. Another Case is Unai Nunez, he came and complained he was not playing. He was not playing, because in his first 3 games of the season, he had a 5.8, a red card in the 10th minute of a game and the 3rd time he played he had 5.4. He was not going to play for me again after that display. Anyway, Nunez went to Gijon for 5M. In January I made 3 signings, all for the first team. First up was Ivan Martin, a 28yo midfield/winger to add a bit more depth in multiple areas, he comes in from Villareal for 3.2M. Deadline day saw Iker Alvarez join as backup keeper from Benfica for 1.1M. The biggest signing was the second one made, Andoni Etxabe, a just turned 19yo LB from Sociedad. Because he was at Sociedad, I had to trigger his hefty release clause of 40M, but he will be the best Basque LB in the world in the near future(I think). Chasing records: The season didn't get off to the best start, losses to Real and Atletico Madrid in the first 6 games. Loss number 3 happened on match day 14, Nov 28 against Osasuna, we would not lose again. Going into the last 2 games with a chance to break Real Madrids records of most wins and most points in a season, we kind of bottled it and drew the last 2 games. Despite not making history, it was a fantastic league season, 24 match unbeaten run to end the season. Can we challenge Barcelona's unbeaten record next season? Champions League and Copa Del Rey: In the Champions League we finished the league stage top and drew Monaco in the last 16. We started away from home and well, we got 2 red cards and finished the game with 9 men, lost 3-1. The home leg we could not get any momentum going and drew 1-1 to lose 4-2 on aggregate, very disappointing to go out at this stage The Copa Del Rey was much more successful. We managed to avoid any of the other big teams until we met Barcelona in the final and 2 Lander Beitia goals were the difference and we lifted the Copa Del Rey for the first time in the save! All in all, you would have to say this was a very very successful season, despite the disappointment in the UCL. Here is the team that won the double, just like the legendary 1984 Bilbao team. 5 players under the age of 21, 4 of them from the same youth intake, I think I can start calling that group a golden generation and maybe just maybe, the class of 23 will lead us to a Champions League victory one day. Looking ahead: Once again I have 25M to spend in the summer but unlike last summer, there are no glaring holes. I have starters and backups at every position and young players coming through to fill any gaps. Unless something pops up or one of the better Basque players goes on the transfer list, I may not even make any first team signings. We shall see. There are a couple of candidates from the academy or B team that could find there way up to the first team this season. The best of the bunch is Gorka Aizpurua, he is ready for first team football but I may need to loan him out so he can play more consistently. If he sticks around he would be 3rd choice at both striker and left wing. Next up Miguel Angel Losa, another of the class of 23, while not quite as talented as the others, I still think he has a future role in this team. I think he will be in the squad as a rotational option in the center of the park. My midfield is incredibly strong but I want to get him game time next season. This is Mario, who I brought in last summer for 2.7M, he will likely stay in the B team for next season but may get the occasional call up. Lastly, Roberto Alonso, this kid has a big and bright future. I wanted him to be a guy who plays for the B team and gets a few callups this season but he got upset that I did not loan him out and would not sign a new deal. I decided in January that, ok I'll loan you out and hope to get a new deal in the summer. But before I could get him out on loan he comes to me with the "explore options" talk. Great. I think I will just have to sell him in the summer but I am going to try to sell him for less than I could but force in a buy back clause. I have done this with a couple of other sales. Sold one kid for 2.5M but had a buy back clause at 8M if he ends up really good. Very disappointed in this kid, I had high hopes. Sorry I keep doing these super long posts. It's hard for me to talk about this team and save without going off for ever. There is so much I would like to say or show you. This is the abridged version I assure you.

well... This was a fun match

2026/27 Athletic Club de Bilbao Another busy summer transfer window, busy for Bilbao standards I guess, more on the outs than the ins. Out: Jon Morcillo RW to Bologna for 5M, Julen Agirrezabala GK to Sevilla for 3M, Benat Turrientes DM to Empoli for 9.5M, Kevin Rodriques LB to Portimonense for 2.4 In: Martin Zubimendi DM from Real Madrid for 21M, Aitor Fernandez GK from Osasuna for 375K, Eneko Prieto LB from Las Palmas for 350K Morcillo decided that he would not sign a new contract and would walk away for free after this season so I started offering him out and settled on 5M from the Italian club and sent him on his way with my thanks. He made around 90 appearances for me, mostly off the bench, I have younger players coming through that need his game time anyway. Agirrezabala was tired of being an eternal backup which is fair enough really so he is allowed to head off to Sevilla, where he will... be a backup and only play 2 games all season. Turrientes was a flop in his first season at the club and after I saw Zubimendi on the transfer list I just wanted as much of my investment back and I could get and Empoli came in and helped me only lose 500K on the deal. Rodrigues was 3rd choice LB by the end of last season. The emergence of Arberas on the right allowed Azpilicueta to be backup on the left. I got a couple of pretty good years from him and get back half what I paid, I'll call it a win...just. Zubimendi was on the outs at Real Madrid and he is the perfect man to backup DM behind Vencendor, so for 21M it's a definite steal. With Agirrezabala going I needed a new backup keeper and none of the academy boys were ready or needed to be actually playing on loan, so in steps Aitor Fernandez an older keeper who has no problem sitting behind Unai Simon and collecting a paycheck. Prieto is one for the future. The situation at LB looking forward is fairly desperate. I have not had any LBs come through or even someone I could retrain to play LB. Prieto is a longshot gamble, maybe he'll come good some day. My team heading into the season GK Unai Simon Aitor Fernandez LB Aihen Munoz Cesar Azpilicueta CBs Hugo Guillamon, Dani Vivian Unai Nunez, Inigo Martinez RB Ander Capa Joseba Arberas DM Unai Vencendor Martin Zubimendi CM Mikel Merino, Oihan Sancet Jon Moncayola, Iker Muniain, Julen Jon Guerrero AML Inaki Williams Lander Beitia, Aimar Vicandi AMR Nico Williams Asier Munoz PF Asier Villalibre Unai Vellejo As per usual we come into the season as 5th favorites but we have finished top 2 years in a row and won the thing last season. We get off to a great start, unbeaten in the first 13 games of the league season and winning the first 3 Champions League games against Ajax, Leipzig and Dinamo Zagreb. Things started wobbling a bit in November with losses to Lyon and Levante, we actually responded to the Levante defeat by beating Man City in the next game! Unlucky for us Real Madrid were also rolling and unbeaten at this time and things came to a head with a top of the table clash in early December, a game that saw Real Madrid open up a 7 point advantage over us after a 3-1 defeat in Madrid. We were able to rack up the points in the league throughout but Real Madrid, you could say, won the league that day. Valencia even overtook us late on in the season when we were resting players for the Champions League, more on that in a minute. No top 2 finish for Bilbao this time around. A good league season, more points than we had in a title winning season last year. Real Madrid were on another level this season The Copa Del Rey saw us go out in the Quarters against Barcelona on penalties. Not much to be said there. The Champions League is another matter entirely. We finished 4th in league play so got to skip the first knockout round and go straight to the last 16. Heartbreaking to reach the final only to lose but honestly we were so outclassed by Bayern. We were also missing Inaki Williams who got hurt against Arsenal and will be out for 6 months. Nico Williams was also a bit hobbled by the final. The team of the season hasn't changed much but there is one new name that you haven't met yet. Asier Munoz. From the same intake as Vallejo, Beitia and Arberas. He now makes 4 players from the 2022/23 youth intake to become a regular part of the first team and he may have the most potential of the bunch summer plans: I am not really sure. I have a solid team with a few young pieces and coverage at every position, other than LB, LB is a black hole it seems. I have 25M to spend and finally have a really healthy bank balance after all the money I flashed around on the promise of making it back later. The only move I have planned is bringing in Javi Lopez to back up Munoz at LB, Azpilicueta is still getting the job done but the man will be 38 early next season and there is NOBODY else that is close to first team ready at LB and I can't find another Basque player who can even play LB other than Laporte, which, if I signed him, he is not playing LB. I think I may have to just find a RB or midfielder to retrain. But other than Lopez, maybe a new RB to compete with or start over Arberas but I don't want to block him by bringing in Odriozola or Gorosabel both are 30 or 31 years old and would cost my whole budget anyway and I'm not sure I could get my head around that. Inaki Williams will miss at least the first couple of months of next season with a spine issue and if he loses too much pace, at his age, I may need to move on from him but I'm not sure Beitia is actually ready for the fulltime gig and Muniain is definitely not a long term option at 35. I could go get Aimar, he is still at Osasuna and could be had for around 20M but when Inaki comes back, if he is still a star, that leaves me with 3 guys for 1 position and I do not like that for my teams. Should be an interesting summer for sure.

Forgot to mention that the top two players in the Next Gen award are...

This may be a long post, you have been warned. First time posting here and I wanted to share my own progress in the Athletic Club adventure. I am in year 5 now, hence the long post, but I wanted to briefly cover the last 5 years and then start regular season updates like some of you guys do! First season transfers most of these will be some up front and some over 3, it's going to look like I have way too much budget. No ins in January In: Julen Jon Guerrero from Real Madrid for 13M pounds, Jon Moncayola from Osasuna for 12M, Alex from Real Madrid for 185K, Roi Torres from Real Madrid for 200K, David Garcia from Osasuna for 9M all outs were in January Out: Mikel Vesga to Al-Ain for 3.5M, Oscar De Marcos to Charleroi for 81K, Alex Petxarroman to Ibiza for 100K, Gorka Guruzeta to Granada for 950K First season was kind of a struggle but managed to finish in the Europa League places. One very nice surprise is that, I was able to get 22 goals out of Asier Villalibre, I was surprised reading this thread that not one person had reported getting results out of this man. He has been firing my whole save to this point, I'll post his stats at the end. Overall I think I had to be happy with a 6th place finish. Look at Betis! Lost to Barcelona in the semis of the Copa Del Rey Team of the year for season 1. I have run a 4-3-3 for this whole save. Muniain has been a fantastic MEZ for me, Villalibre has been playing as a PF Transfers for season 2, 23/24 In: Ander Herrera for 215K from PSG, Hugo Guillamon(to play CB) from Valencia for 34M, Mikel Merino from Man City for 31M, Cesar Azpilicueta from Chelsea for 8.5M Out: Dani Garcia to Valencia for 3.6M, Unai Nunez to Espanyol for 475K, Imanol to Brescia 925K, Dani Vivian to Spurs for 32M(release clause, this one hurts but it did allow me to make the Merino deal) Huge improvement in season 2, but Barcelona are just too much. Knocked out of the Copa Del Rey by Sevilla in the 3rd round, real disappointment there. As for the Europa League we made it to the Semis before going out to AC Milan 7-6 on aggregate That front 3 was immense all season Season 3, 24/25 transfers In: Unai Nunez from Espanyol for 3.7M, Kevin Rodrigues from Adana for 5M, Jon Karrikaburu from Sociedad for 8.5M, January deal Aihen Munoz from Sociedad for 10M Out: Alex Berenguer on a free to Wolves(would not sign new deal), Yeray to Osasuna for 9M(why Unai Nunez is back) This was much closer than it looks, we had it in our hands but lost 2 of the last 3 games of the season and went into the final day with a shot at the title. Pain. First season in the Champions League, we made it through the league phase but ran up against Man City in the first knockout. The Copa Del Rey we made a run all the way to the final but lost it to Real Madrid 3-1. So close to a double but we get nothing out of it. Inaki spent some time out with injury this season but Villalibre stepped up again and bagged a ton of goals for me. Season 4, 25/26 transfers In: Benat Turrientes from Hoffenheim for 10M, January signing Dani Vivian from Bayern for 52M rising to 68... yikes but had to be done. Martinez is about done and the other options to pair with Guillamon are not exactly top tier Out: Inigo Lekue to Bordeaux for 675K, January transfers Ander Herrera to Wolfsberger AC for 140K, Jon Karrikaburu to Paranaense for 8.5M, David Garcia to Udinese for 140K(had already agreed a precontract and I had just gotten Vivian back so might as well get something) LA LIGA CHAMPIONS!!! 2 years ago 83 points left me 15 points off Barcelona, last season 87 points left 5 points off Barcelona, this season 83 has me 7 points clear of Real Madrid. Barcelona had a dreadful season. We made another run to the Copa Del Rey final, but this time... we lost to Real Madrid again, sigh. In the Champions League we went one step further and got knocked out by PSG in the last 16. This season saw the bedding in of the first youth players to come through the academy. Striker Unai Vallejo, winger Lander Beitia and RB Joseba Arberas. These screenshots are from April 27 so they are a year older than when they broke into the team That just about does it, I did promise to post Villalibre's goal return so that will be the last thing.