Football Season Guide

As the smallest club in LaLiga, every season in which Eibar avoid relegation is an achievement. Last year, they survived comfortably in midtable and finished 12th. Every summer Eibar lose some of their best players to bigger clubs and have to replace them and this has been the case once again. Starters Joan Jordan, Ruben Pena and Marc Cucurella are all gone, which is a blow. But they almost always recruit well and have brought in some exciting prospects from the second division, especially the Deportivo duo Edu Exposito and Quique, as well as securing the return of their former star winger Takashi Inui. In the dugout, there has been continuity as Jose Luis Mendilibar is still there. After Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid, Mendilibar is the LaLiga coach to have been at his current club the longest. Eibar’s situation is an encouraging one, then. The level of quality in the squad might not have changed too much and the key will be developing chemistry between the new players, something which Mendilibar is good at achieving. One thing that hasn’t changed is the fact that Eibar still enjoy a significant home advantage. Their tiny little stadium of Ipurua is one of the most difficult away days for most teams, with fans close up to the pitch and with the long journey to get to the valley town. A weakness for Eibar could be injuries. They have several players in this year’s squad who are injury prone and that’s a worry.