Uncertainty surrounds Athletic in the absence of just one day until June 30, the date that marks the end of the employment contract of a hundred Bilbao club workers who perform their duties in Lezama. Jon Uriarte, the new president of the Ibaigane entity, has already established the relevant contacts both in the ‘factory’ itself and in Ibaigane. Officially, in any case, he has not leaked any news.
The appointment of Mikel González as director of sports development and transfers seems to be a given, although it has not yet been publicly confirmed. This man from Getxo is a member of the Alavés technical secretariat and was previously responsible for the base structure of the Babazorro club. He also previously worked at Eibar.
From there everything is doubts about the structure of Athletic. After choosing not to count on the participation of the Mexican Carlos Aviña as general director of football for purely non-sporting reasons, Uriarte must look for someone to hold that position. Fundamental position in his sports organization chart, since the rest will depend on that professional.
The panorama surrounding the coach of the men’s and women’s first teams was resolved after the confirmation of the bet on Iraia Iturregi and Ernesto Valverde, respectively. From there, the new managers of Athletic also have to look for a director of performance (since during their campaign they said that it was already agreed) and the aforementioned director of development and transfers (apparently destined for Mikel González). Lezama will be managed by Sergio Navarro, a professional with experience at both Levante and Villarreal, and the technical manager for women’s football will be Xabi Arrieta, a coach with close ties to Bizkerre until now.
meeting day
The new managers of Athletic took advantage of yesterday’s session to go to Lezama and meet, among others, with the visible heads of the rojiblanco club’s youth academy. The new season begins to take shape and from next week there will be movement in the facilities of the rojiblanco club.
It also remains to define who will be the coaches of the different lower teams of the red and white entity, starting with Bilbao Athletic itself. From there we will have to see what is happening in the rest of the teams. All the Lezama staff still do not have first-hand news, since there are those who are still in the middle of the vacation period.
Ugarte and his directors have also made known what their intentions are at a general level to the Athletic employees who work in Ibaigane. Everything indicates that in principle there will be an evaluation period and from there they will make the pertinent decisions.
June 30, in any case, is just around the corner and the Athletic environment is waiting with some impatience to find out what, among others, Lezama’s technical organization chart will be.
Inaki Ugalde
