22, and it's my club
842 games at this football club. 572 won, 67%. Sixteen years. Days spent on holiday in that time: 0. Not one. I took this job at 20 with 24 players queueing up to tell me we were playing badly.
Nuevo Mestalla. 64,560 in. Nothing at all for 76 minutes. Garmendia, penalty, 76. Nieto, 77. Garmendia again, 89. 99 points. Sevilla 98. Sixteen years here and it comes down to one point on the final day.
Champions of Spain. San Mames, 53,332, last day of the season. Nieto 53, Garmendia 62, and I let myself believe it. Larrinaga sent off on 70. Sealetsa scored on 79 and again on 83. Bakero, 87th minute, ten men. 3-2. 90 points. Sevilla and Real Madrid both finished on 85. This club only signs from one corner of one country.
Real Madrid 0 Athletic 2. Salazar 7, Arrieta 54. 19 shots each. 12 of ours on target, 6 of theirs. Arrieta won every tackle he attempted, got an 8.7, and it was his 100th for this club. Their keeper hadn't conceded in 184 minutes before Salazar's. Match report: "I expected a close game with the most likely winners being R. Madrid, so for A. Bilbao to win is really something." I'll take really something.
1st in the Spanish First Division. I've read that line four times this morning. Athletic Bilbao. Top. In September. The social feed is meanwhile 541 likes deep on somebody asking "what sort of deal is that?" about one of my signings, so the mood is roughly normal. Zaragoza away tomorrow.
Asked today why I've brought Martin Merquelanz back when I was the one who let him go. Fair question, annoyingly. He's 27, influential in that dressing room, morale good, and I've got him listed as a fringe player, which he is going to love reading. I said circumstances change and that he's improved immeasurably. Both true. The third true thing is that I was 22 when I made the first decision.
Spanish Cup. 3-2. Nico Williams scored on 35 and again on 45. Torres and Osimhen levelled it inside two minutes just after the hour and I genuinely thought we'd gone. Yeray headed the winner on 82. Osimhen off on 84 and I couldn't tell you one thing about the last six minutes. Two years ago my own profile page told me I had achieved no landmarks. I read that page more often than I should have.
5th. 52 points from 27, and the single draw in there annoys me more than the nine defeats. No silverware. My own profile still reads "no landmarks have been achieved yet" every time I open it, which is a very polite way of putting it. We did beat Barcelona 3-0 and knock City out of Europe. It's a start.
4-3. Uriarte 3, Ganea 26. Luduena got one back in first half stoppage time. Puig made it 3-2 on 79. Capa 86, Villalibre 90+1 and I thought that was that. Reis scored for them in the 96th minute. Retained. I have never wanted a whistle more.
San Mames, 53,332, and Barcelona never got going. Muniain twice inside 21 minutes, Villalibre after the break. 3-0. I get told I'm too young for this job roughly once a week. Not tonight.
