Athletic Club series #1

Much like the Sevilla mini-series I did a little while ago, I've picked another Spanish team to write about for this month. It's an odd month. AFCON is underway, domestic football is the only thing going on until mid-February, and there's another dreaded international break at the end of January. Thus, I figured what better time to do a number of pieces on the most unique club in Spain.

This one will be more of an overview on what I think about the club and why I've chosen to write about them. The obvious reason that everyone who "knows ball" will already be familiar with is that the club only fields players from/developed in (sometimes linked to) the Basque Country. Long story short is at one point football was about community and all clubs were linked with something or other, be it a company or native tongue or whatever. That's long gone now, and the sport has been headed towards globalization/Americanization for decades. One of the only clubs not actively participating in this is Athletic. I want to say Chivas in Mexico is a more local variant of this, only employing Mexicans, but this policy is even more restrictive. It's a region of Spain (bleeds into France) with just over 2 million inhabitants. Compare that to Mexico's population of nearly 130 million. Point is, just like all the "non top five league" clubs have also realized, there are drastic limitations in what a club can do in modern football if they aren't backed by billionaires and spend hundreds of millions on transfers and wages. This is obvious when looking at the trophy cabinet, which for Athletic has been empty since the league and cup double in1984 (unless you count super cups, which for me are tinpot so I don't count them).

To me, it comes down to what's the point of the sport. Most clubs will never win anything. That's just the reality of it. A club like Ajax, just as an example, has a philosophy that accompanies success, be it in the Dutch league or in Europe (obviously more in the past than now for the latter). Personally, I don't see how you can separate clubs unless they have a reason for being. I'd absolutely love to see so many more clubs with a specific philosophy or set of rules to play for them, and to be fan-owned. I don't get the point of Barcelona and Madrid trying to argue some sort of moral or sporting superiority when the only difference between the two is the city each is located in and the color of the shirt. What's truly the difference between Inter and Juve, Man Utd and Liverpool, Arsenal/Chelsea/Spurs? Nothing. Maybe some play "better" football, which is temporary and subjective anyway. Hell, even a class divide would make sense in terms of who supports which club, or location within a city. Also, going back to the winning thing, the whole reason people are labeled "plastic" is the joy one feels when his/her club wins unexpectedly vs when it's just what happens at super clubs is massive. Think of the two Copa finals Athletic took part in last season. They lost both, and it was unprecedented having two in the span of a month, but La Real winning THE Basque derby meant so much more than Barcelona having a "failure of a season" and only winning the Copa. It's the same in England with half the teams not taking even the FA cup seriously because they're scared of losing PL money via relegation or would rather rest key players for a title challenge or whatever.

To reiterate, I struggle to relate to the modern game. I definitely see the value in stats, but I detest the "analytics community" on twitter. It's super boring that the same few teams come in the same top places in the "best" leagues, spending ridiculous money on mercenary players for spoilt fans in foreign countries that chose to pick that team because they win/have the best players. Also, screw the Bundesliga and other leagues banning fans because they (or the gov't) can. Athletic, despite the limitations, at least gives me some hope that community still exists and the "beautiful" game isn't solely about money.