Ernesto Valverde begins his third season at Athletic

Ernesto Valverde begins his third stage at Athletic. DPA via Europa Press (Europa Press)

The new president of Athletic, Jon Uriarte, took office early on Wednesday morning, five days after his election, after presenting the pre-guarantee of 5% of the budget established by the club's Statutes (around seven million euros), and began to work.

He immediately announced the departure from the club of the sports director Rafa Alkorta and the head of women's football, Joseba Agirre, with the traditional formula of thanking them for the services provided, and officially announced the signing of Ernesto Valverde (Viandar de la Vera, Cáceres, 58 years old) as the new coach of the first team.

A day before, the players began to undergo medical tests prior to the start of training.

Valverde, whose last destination was FC Barcelona, ​​with whom he won two leagues and a Cup, was dismissed after losing the Super Cup semifinal in January 2020. Now he returns to Athletic, in what will be his third season.

His career as a coach began at the rojiblanco club, where he directed the lower teams.

With Javier Uria as president, he became an assistant to the sports management led by Andoni Zubizarreta.

He returned to the bench with Bilbao Athletic, and after the death of Uria, and the arrival to the presidency of Ignacio Ugartetxe, he took the reins of the first team in the 2003-04 season.

He qualified Athletic fifth and got them into the UEFA Cup.

The following year, the discrepancies with the new president, Fernando Lamikiz, were evident, and despite achieving, among other things,

At Espanyol he reached the UEFA final, which he also lost on penalties against Sevilla.

He then emigrated to Greece, where he won the League and Cup with Olympiacos;

He returned to Spain and managed Villarreal for a few months, where he was dismissed, to return to Greece again and win two leagues and a Cup in his previous destination.

At Valencia he replaced Pellegrino and put the team in fifth place.

He returned to Bilbao, to replace Marcelo Bielsa.

He had to pacify after a convulsive season and he also became the only Athletic coach who has directed the team in the old and the new field.

In his first season he managed to reach the Champions League;

in the second, they passed the preliminary phase against Napoli and reached the group stage.

In addition, Athletic reached the Cup final, which they lost to FC Barcelona, ​​although they later won the Super Cup in two legs against the team then led by Luis Enrique.

In his balance as coach of Athletic, the most remarkable thing is that, except in the second season of his first season, he has always put Athletic in European positions.

After his departure, and the arrival of Ziganda on the bench, which was later occupied by Berizzo, Garitano and Marcelino, the Bilbao team has not returned to continental competitions.

So Uriarte, the new president, has believed that Valverde is the right coach to give Athletic a new boost.

The technician, who already warned, at the beginning of his previous stage, that second parts were never good, "except for the Godfather", now assures that, "I didn't like the third part so much, but we must admit that the director threw eggs at the roll it."

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