Athletic Bilbao Conquest

Sky Sports understands that Athletic Bilbao have parted company with manager Marcelo Bielsa after an altercation reportedly involving a key board member. With officials from the Basque club refusing to comment, speculation as to who will replace Bielsa is rife, with many former players thought to be interested in the vacant post.

One thing is for sure, with pre-season about to start, the club is certainly in a state of turmoil.

I have chosen to do a save with Athletic Bilbao as they are a relatively large club in Spain, and have a pretty solid squad. Muniain and Llorente playing in the forward line. It will also be interesting to see if I can battle with the big guns of Real and Barca. Whatever happens, I will be sure to give this save my all!

Quick question, how do you take printscreens in game? I forgot and can't seem to find the right place. Cheers.

good luck with Bilbao and its alt f9 or then they are saved in ur fm13 folder located in ur my documents folder

Cheers mate! I also like to create a persona for my manager stories, so I never use my real name in games, I create my own manager

Sky Sports sources believe that the vacant post of Athletic Club Bilbao's manager has been filled by rookie Russian manager Vladimir Chernenko. Vladimir was previously a writer for Spartak Moscow's club fanzine, and his appointment has rocked the footballing world.

Speaking to reporters outside the club's training grounds, club chairman Josu Urrutia had this to say:
''Vladimir has an impressive footballing knowledge, and during many meetings between the board, myself, and Vladimir, we came to the conclusion that he is the right man to lead the club to glory. We firmly believe that the knowledge Vladimir has is sufficient to propel this club to new heights and we eagerly anticipate the season ahead.

Vladimir himself was unavailable for comment, although it is thought that he shares similar thoughts to the chairman.

I have 17m to spend, and I'd like to sign a pacy forward, strong CB and holding midfielder. Any suggestions?

I did Bilbao in FM12 mate, they're really good fun to play as.

I signed Vadillo from Betis and he turned in to an amazing player, Real and Barca bid £46m for him when he was 20.

With the Basque rule, its hard to sign players. Azpilicueta was my main signing but he was at Marseille then and signable whereas he's obviously at Chelsea now.

Use the youth team, there are always cracking youngsters there.

Good luck!!

The sad bit is you can only sign Basque players, which is a very small group of players, and it becomes annoying because most of the players you'd target belong to your rival club Real Sociedad and won't be interested in joining unless they become unhappy.

As far as I can recall, there is no good striker outside the two clubs, so you'll have to make do with Muniain, Llorente, Aduriz and Toquero(or w/e) for now.

Stephane Ruffier could be a future keeper target for you though.


Note: Benat(Betis) would make an excellent signing for you as a central midfielder for you. He has a 17.5m release clause. Mikel Rico(Granada) is an available DM. You won't have a class LB to start with, so Natxo Monreal from Malaga could be vital. He has a 10.5m release clause, but hurry, because Malaga usually offer him a new contract. Kike Sola is a basque striker from Osasuna, but I haven't had a look at his attributes. Imanol Agirretxe from Sociedad might be an option cause I think they might sell him, even to you.

This could be very interesting. Good luck, I will be following!

BTW LLorente won't sign a new contract, so after the summer window closes, offer him for 30M. That way, you get to keep him till Jan, and you still get the full amount.