Football Season Guide

Athletic Club won the Spanish Super Cup in the 2020/21 season, but the campaign finished as something of a disappointment as they could only finish 10th and they lost two cup finals. There was a coaching change in the middle of the season, as Marcelino came in to replace Gaizka Garitano halfway through the campaign. There was a slight new manager bounce, but then results dropped off again. Marcelino, though, will have had a full pre-season with his team this summer and that is key. He is a coach who has some very specific and complex ideas, so he needs time to implement these ideas. He didn’t have that last season because he came in halfway through, but now he will be able to get the team playing the way he wants to. There haven’t been many changes at Athletic Club in terms of personnel this summer, as is always the case because of their unique Basque-only policy. They have kept the core group together and they do have a very talented squad, with many youngsters coming through too. There is excitement at Athletic Club, then, and optimism that they can achieve something good in Marcelino’s first full season. They do lack a clinical centre-forward and it doesn’t look like they will sign one this summer, so that is the one lingering concern with this team.