The tenant of the Athletic first team bench has always been an important factor when deciding on the vote of rojiblancos members in presidential elections. It is not uncommon to have consensus around the coach. Fernando García Macua and Juan Carlos Ercoreca, however, ran for the 2007 election with the same coach: Joaquín Caparrós.
The lawyer from Bilbao won the poll and the coach from Seville ended his four -year term as Athletic coach. No one else has done that before. Macua, yes, re-agreed with Caparrós as coach in the 2011 election, but Josu Urrutia’s candidacy, with Bielsa as coach, prevailed in the polls.
The Argentine coach spent two seasons on the bench at old San Mamés, giving way to Vaverde’s second season at Athletic, which lasted four years. Txingurri was replaced by Ziganda as coach, but the now Huesca coach has only served for the first of the two years he has signed.
Urrutia then chose to sign Berizzo, but the bet paid off. The then president of the rojiblanco club chose to remove the Argentine along with the team in the relegation zone and used the services of Gaizka Garitano. The derioatarra completed that season leaving the Lions with a European crossbar, qualified the team for next season’s Cup final and was dismissed midway through the League the following season. Marcelino, the last coach to cross the bench at San Mamés, took over and ended the campaign that had just ended.
As there has been much talk about the division caused by Athletic’s presidential election in recent years, the outlook has been more harsh a few decades ago. Jabo Irureta will prove it. The irundarra coach resigned from Athletic with a positive in the qualifying table after losing two consecutive games to San Mamés, who were relegated to UEFA after an armed robbery in Parma after leaving Newcastle in the gutter and surrendering in the first leg of the Cup in Riazor against Deportivo who, like the Italian team at the continental level, have ended up proclaiming themselves as tournament champions.
Irureta came to Athletic at the hands of José María Arrate in the 1994 election. San Mamés fans, already accustomed to Heynckes ’team, did not accept the football offered by the lions nor did they forget what happened to the polls. Lertxundi, the former president, can also testify to the subsequent effects of the electoral processes on Ibaigane’s seat. The difference is that social networks didn’t exist back then.
Source: La Verdad
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
