Project Bilbao

Progress:

2013-14:
League: 3rd, 65pts
Copa del Rey: 4th Round (Lost to Granada 3-3 on away goals)

2014-15:
League: 6th, 67pts
Copa del Rey: Winners (3-0 over Barcelona)
Champions League: 1st Knockout Round (Lost to Chelsea 5-3 on aggregate)

Good luck with this KEZ, will be following.

Good luck mate! Always enjoyed managing Bilbao. I will be following

good luck kez ill will be following aswell.

Thanks mate, big fan of your stuff so feeling the pressure!

Thanks George, something I've never really done at full lenth so I'm looknig forward to the challenge. In a lot of my games i tend to sign a lot of youth so I'm looking forward to playing where that is all I can do!

Thank you mate. Feeling the pressure so soon

Just a side note - I'm actually waiting to start on the new update, however I've got quite a bit of content to post before I even need FM, then hopefully the update won't be too far away

Background

Formed and developed by Englishman, Athletic Bilbao is the symbol of a small autonomous community spanning regions of Spain and France. (Pictured below)



The well known factor with Bilbao and the main thing that has always fascinated me, is the club’s very strict Cantera policy, playing only players they deem as “their own” through either birth right (including grandfather ruling) or footballing education (5 years from 16 or younger). In SUSIE we would probably classify this as real life “nationalistic management”, but when you realise that the Basque Community as a whole is just over 2 million people (including women) you realise just how hard the challenge is.

In the past, rival Basque sides such as Real Sociedad and Osasuna started with these strict rules but found that they struggled to compete and so began to loosen and eventually abolish their guidelines in favour of signing foreign and non-Basque Spanish footballers. Notably Ian Rush was the first non-Basque player to sign for Sociedad. In contrast, Athletic Bilbao stuck to their guns and whilst doing so they are one of only 3 La Liga sides never to have left the top flight (no points for guessing the other two) and in recent years have reached a few finals such as the Copa del Rey (2009, 2012) and UEFA Europa League (2012) but haven’t actually won anything since a historic treble (League/Copa del Rey/Supercopa) in 1984.

That last point brings us to my aim. I want to bring trophies to Bilbao on both a national and continental level to celebrate what it is that they do!

Yes a KEZ career!

Good luck with this, will be awesome I'm sure, I love the basque rule too

Managing them atm, in 2018. Just won the title and EL. REALLY fun challenge! Make sure to scout the shit out of Spanish players 16 yrs or younger

Good luck bud, you'll need it if you're to topple the big boys of Barca and Madrid.

Bilbao \o/ I loved my save with them on FM12. Tempted to start with them on FM14

Played a couple of season with them before Llorrente left. It was pretty fun

Dan - Thanks for the support, hopefully I can emulate your United side!

Sears - Take it I've got a lot to live up to then! Thanks for the advice

K3V0 - Don't I know it, one hell of a challenge, but that's why I like it!

Johno - Hopefully I'm the same in loving it. Give it a go (just don't do better than me!)

sanka - I did try with them not too long ago too, but didn't really put enough time into it to succeed

Thanks to all for commenting, as I mentioned, progress will be slow for a little while, I want the update and a little bit of progress made so you're not all waiting on me playing in real-time
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The Club Overview



Facilities



Founded in 1898 (although this is disputed), Los Leones (The Lions) currently play their games at the San Memes stadium which now hold over 53,000 fans having recently added 13,000 to the capacity in a redevelopment which was almost a complete rebuild, only 1 stand survived (see below)



The training and youth facilities (as you’d expect) are listed as excellent and superb respectively, in FM14 and they’ll be vital in the production and development of players eligible to play for me, as well as a vast scouting network, enabling me to make inroads with the one bit of lea-way I have in the transfer market, signing Spanish players aged 16 and under to become “home grown” through football education. Essentially, I’ll be signing anyone I can with the slightest hint of talent, especially Basque nationals, in order to save paying hugely inflated fees when they are a more developed, possibly selling them for small fees if they aren’t quite up to scratch.

The Boardroom and Finances
(And a little bit of a realisation)



Something I’ve not seen often in Football Manager is that the ‘board’ consists of just Josu Urrutia, who is an elected head of the club, chosen by its members. I assume this works much like the Presidential votes elsewhere in Spain but have no idea how that will come into effect within FM. Josu is a former one-club man at Bilbao and made over 450 league appearances between Bilbao Athletic and the first team scoring 23 goals from defensive midfield.

Money wise, the club currently carry a debt of £20million which I’m assuming is down to the stadium upgrade. This shouldn’t hinder me too much as due to producing most of my own players I’d expect to make a profit more often than not. The likelihood is that the club will have to remain somewhat of a “selling club,” accepting any outstanding offers for star players in order to reinvest it in developing (and finding) the next lot. This may also relate to letting players go who are asking too much for wages, as we need to continue to be sustainable. An example of this could be found in real life regarding Fernando Llorente. There may even be case for developing average players through the academy, as I mentioned earlier just to generate small profits and create funds for elsewhere.

Going to be intresting to follow

this makes me want to start playing with Bilbao carry one mate, very interesting for now !

EDIT:

Btw mate, if you actually want to buy some players, I found this shortlist

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/football-manager-2014-players/149639-best-basque-players.html

at the bottom you have an entire lineup of relatively good basque players that are NOT in Bilbao currently , except Ibai Gomez maybe, sorry if I'm wrong

Dyrim - Thanks

sanka - Thanks for that, I've got a little piece coming up about basque players in the coming days

Affiliates



You may think (as I do) that the club have an extortionate amount of affiliated clubs but that is all part of the scouting network. Although listed as Spanish and some French, these clubs are actually Basque teams and so will be producing and even nationalising players that I may be able to target. There’s also a chance for me to ship some of the younger players away from the ‘B Team’ to develop in first team football.

Plenty of teams to scrounge from and give your players first team football!

aaaaaah, come on mate ! I'm eagerly refreshing this thread couple times a day, still no story I'm, the one to talk, haven't started my borussia one

Dan - yeah I know, hopefully they produce some quality but I feel it may be a 'needle in a haystack' job. More likely I'll steal prospects from the likes of Osasuna and Sociedad

sanka - Apologies mate, but as mentioned I'm waiting on the update which is why I've had so much time for the detail I'm currently producing

transfer updates? were bilbao even active in this period?

sanka - not 100% sure but I like my game to be up to date elsewhere and want a to start afresh with the new ME that we're expecting

Basques
Part 1 and Somewhat Realistic

Before I delve into the club itself, I thought I’d give you an overview of the Basque footballing landscape at the moment.
Over the next few years, it’s obvious that my youth sides won’t provide all of my players and so keeping tabs on the quality Basque players out there is going to be key. Here are a few that you may or may not be aware of (feel free to recommend any more!)

Stephane Ruffier – 27 - GK – St Etienne

Quality keepers are hard to come by and even harder to produce so it may be worth keeping an eye on Ruffier on the off chance that he does become available. At 27, as a keeper I’d expect he has another 7-8 seasons in him at the very top and so if there is any opportunity to sign him I most likely will.

Oier Olazabal – 24 – GK – Barcelona

Essentially, this is the same as above. Although Olazabal is possibly a little more realistic of a target financially, it may be harder to draw him away from Barca. At 24 I think he may be my preferred option between the sticks with him likely to have a few extra years in him, potentially 10 at the top of his game. It would be fantastic to have a regular keeper for such a period.

Fernando Amorebieta - 28 – CB – Fulham

He only left Bilbao in the summer on a free but with his quality and experience I would always look to bring him back to cover my centre halves and mentor any players that are up and coming. The fact he’ll likely be 30+ by the time I get a chance to sign him means that (in theory) he will be cheap too.

Xabi Prieto – 30 – CM/AMC – Real Soceidad

This one is more controversial as he has played at Sociedad (as mentioned before, rivals) for the whole of his career and probably wouldn’t move. So why am I interested? GOALS!! Who doesn’t need a goal scoring midfielder? At 30 he wouldn’t be a long-term key player but could come in as very strong cover.

Fernando Llorente – 28 – ST – Juventus

Llorente is one of the more famous Basque players and another who has only just left. He will be watched for goalscoring cover, he has proven that he can do it with this side (85 league goals in total) and once his contract is finished in Turin I’ll look to bring him back.

Diego Forlan – 34 – ST – Cerezo Osaka

Who knew! Apparently Forlan is eligible via the grandparent rule and if he was to sign he would be used similar to Llorente, as a cover player who can surely score. The fact he’s only just joined Osaka probably makes this unlikely

You’ll notice that there’s a fair few older players in that crowd, the rest of the quality is seemingly in my squad or in the next post and out of my reach!

Get Forlan!!

Dan - I'll be giving it a go for sure, would be a quality marquee-style signing for the club

With the update out today this will be making a lot of progress over the weekend so hopefully a real update on Monday!

Thanks for reading so far.
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Basques
Part 2 and Big Dreaming

Continuing my look at the current Basque situation, here are some of the players I'd love to sign but I think my chances are rather slim.

Mikel Arteta – 31 – DM/MC – Arsenal

I think this is where I start dreaming. Arteta’s quality is clear for all to see, but most likely he would be out of my price range in both cost and wages. His contract with Arsenal is set to expire in 2015 and I will have to hope he fancies returning home, although his Sociedad past may be a problem.

Xabi Alonso – 32 – DM – Real Madrid

Similar to Arteta, his wage and cost would kill me right now and having signed a new contract he is probably out of reach until he’s 35 at least. Adding to that, he’s a Real Soceidad product, Basque rivals, which may create a problem for him in switching over.

Javi Martinez – 25 – DM – Bayern Munich

See starting lines of Arteta and Alonso. Imagine these 3 in a midfield. Still think I'm dreaming but at 25, if the club is progressing correctly there may be a chance we could get him by the time he’s 30 or so to see out his years in the club he really made a name for himself, before leaving in 2012.

Asier Illarramendi – 23 – CM – Real Madrid

This lad only left the Basque Country (Socieded again!) in the summer. The fact he’s at Madrid probably means he’s out of reach forever as at 23 and with room to grow they won’t really be looking to let him go will they?

Cesar Azpilacueta – 24 – RB/LB/Wherever Jose Wants – Chelsea

Born and raised by Osasuna and another youngster who will no doubt be coveted by many top teams if he was to leave Chelsea, I would have to put some real work in to be considered one of them!

Nacho Monreal – 27 – LB – Arsenal

Similar story to Azpilicueta only 3 years in advance and at Arsenal!

Antoine Griezmann – 22 – LM – Real Sociedad

Another at our rivals but he would be a great signing nonetheless. The only reason I’d say I was dreaming here is my knowledge of FM and knowing that he goes for big bucks and develops into an astounding player, I would be very lucky to get hold of him!

After the last few, you’ll realise that some of these players have been nationalised by being present and Sociedad, as well as Osasuna, who don’t have such strict rules but are considered Basque. This is something I’ll keep an eye on as it may mean I just creep on them for their best players. IIRC Arsenal has a link with Sociedad too and sometimes loan kids out there, meaning there’s potential for me to poach young/former Arsenal trainees!

Wait - if Forlan's just gone to Japan is he in your DB?

Good luck btw, I never really had the guts to stick to a single nation of players :/

Good luck mate! Enjoyed the review of players!

He's not in the default database now, just had a nosey.

Eric Portapotty/Shedender - Yeah sadly not, I'd done this research before the update

George - Thanks mate. Glad you enjoyed it

The Squad

I'd say other than at left back, we have a fair bit of cover for each and every position, a massive positive is that the majority of the squad is early to mid twenties and so we can hopefully keep them together a fair while and just add to it with upcoming youth players

Key Men
A few of these player will be well known names to you FM players, I am very please with the amount of quality we are starting with but also the potential of some youth players. Here are some of the best.

Formation


As you can see from the squad screenshot, we have a fairly strong attacking midfield department. The current crop of players suggests to me that I should maybe attempt aversion of their real life 4231 formation. Formation is something I will have to consider going forward, as I am limited to the players I can bring in, formations will have to evolve with the players coming through as I can’t really go out and buy replacements for stars that leave or to better a position of the team.

Transfers

No activity as in yet, we've just built a new stadium which has reduced our budgets for now. I was only given £2m to play with but started £15k over our wage budget (and then gave Muniain a new deal) so all of it was moved to maintain our current squad.

In terms of out goings, we've loaned a couple of youngsters out, moved some to Bilbao Athletic (the B team) and Baskonia and the released any players with a potential less than 2 stars, freeing up extra wages and game time for those who could progress to being future Athletic players