Marcelo Bielsa will not be coach of Athletic Bilbao | Uriarte won the elections against Arechabaleta, who had promised the return of the Rosario DT
Marcelo Bielsa will not be technical director of Athletic Bilbao as, after the elections held this Friday at the San Mamés stadium, the candidate Iñaki Arechabaleta-who in his campaign had anticipated that in case of imposing would hire Rosario DT- lost to Jon Uriarte, That resulted winner of the elections with more than 50% of the votes.
It should be remembered that Bielsa left a pleasant image in the two seasons he was in charge of the Bilbao team between 2011 and 2013 Alabama they reached the finals of the Copa del Rey and the Europa League, which they lost to Barcelona and Atlético Madrid, respectively.
The former coach of the Argentine national team stopped working at the end of the day after he was fired from Leeds from England, where he completed his longest cycle in a club, with more than three years of work.
But the figure of the coach from Rosario did not reach the businessman Arechabaleta, who came second in the elections of the institution with 33.56% of the voteswhile Ricardo Barkala came third.
Arechabaleta had anticipated in the preview that the “Loco” was ready to put on the technical diver again: “I spoke with him and he is expectant, confident that we will win. His mind is already in Bilbao. He is very excited and eager to get to work with this magnificent team that we have formed”. The truth is that Bielsa will have to wait to have his second cycle at Athletic.
Within his institutional project, Uriarte added Ernesto Valverde as coach, who already had two spells as coach of Athletic Bilbao. In the last one, Valverde won the Spanish Super Cup and was also chosen by UEFA as the best coach in the Spanish League, for which he was later chosen by Barcelona to replace Luis Enrique.