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#FreeLlorente
Fernando Llorente
- Thread starter ceefoo
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Fishdoll
Bakalao
And a bunch of lawyers from Bayern too.
And he pleaded innocence on the whole thing to the local media. They had a big comment on the club website about Javi having disappeared/left town without permission the day he went to hand over the recission -- but the timing is suspect as according to German sources, Bayern told Athletic exactly when it was going to happen, etc, and Athletic refused to be any part of it. Playing victim to the local audience was more important than any sort of cooperation.
And he pleaded innocence on the whole thing to the local media. They had a big comment on the club website about Javi having disappeared/left town without permission the day he went to hand over the recission -- but the timing is suspect as according to German sources, Bayern told Athletic exactly when it was going to happen, etc, and Athletic refused to be any part of it. Playing victim to the local audience was more important than any sort of cooperation.
Fourteen
Monster Masch
It's a real shame the Athletic team wasn't able to stay together in the same harmony as last season and try and improve on their fortunes. Javi Martinez leaving was certainly the catalyst to their bad fortunes and from that point it always looked like Llorente's mind was elsewhere. Juventus should prove to be a good move for him though.
Deco 20
Scandinavian 101
More than Vidal, Marchisio and Chiellini? wow
Fishdoll
Bakalao
Bielsa made him warm up for ~50 minutes? close to an hour at least today. So yeah, Athletic are still continuing with the public humiliation thing that they started in August.
Urrutia is reluctant to sell even now, Bojan, because he wants to make a point and because it's easier to punish the traitor by keeping him around than it is letting him go, even if money is involved (see previous page for some detail. If you'd like to know more, I can fill in more detail).
And really, the cracks in Athletic started appearing last year but were conveniently papered over as there really was some magic going on (eg the cup runs). A lot of it is because of the brutal working conditions. Every single first team player but one has been out for a period of time with some sort of repetitive stress injury. I think the surgery count is at 5. And then there are extra added fun things like the conditioning trainer grabbing players by the neck and shaking them during the halftime of a league game. Add to this the fact that the club president is on an ego trip that would dwarf Laporta + Florentino Perez combined and... you get the situation that's happening now in Bilbao. Urrutia is gallantly defending Basque pride by stating that Athletic are not a selling club (conveniently ignoring Karanka, Zubi, etc etc) and refusing to let anyone go unless their buyout is paid. It gets him cool points with the Basque nationalists. Bielsa and Urrutia have pretty much singlehandedly managed to dismantle what was a good team within a year. Javi renewed just before the elections that brought Urrutia in and I don't think he and the Fernandos would be leaving if that election had gone differently.
Urrutia is reluctant to sell even now, Bojan, because he wants to make a point and because it's easier to punish the traitor by keeping him around than it is letting him go, even if money is involved (see previous page for some detail. If you'd like to know more, I can fill in more detail).
And really, the cracks in Athletic started appearing last year but were conveniently papered over as there really was some magic going on (eg the cup runs). A lot of it is because of the brutal working conditions. Every single first team player but one has been out for a period of time with some sort of repetitive stress injury. I think the surgery count is at 5. And then there are extra added fun things like the conditioning trainer grabbing players by the neck and shaking them during the halftime of a league game. Add to this the fact that the club president is on an ego trip that would dwarf Laporta + Florentino Perez combined and... you get the situation that's happening now in Bilbao. Urrutia is gallantly defending Basque pride by stating that Athletic are not a selling club (conveniently ignoring Karanka, Zubi, etc etc) and refusing to let anyone go unless their buyout is paid. It gets him cool points with the Basque nationalists. Bielsa and Urrutia have pretty much singlehandedly managed to dismantle what was a good team within a year. Javi renewed just before the elections that brought Urrutia in and I don't think he and the Fernandos would be leaving if that election had gone differently.
F
Flavia
Guest
Unbiased United
New member
Llorente on a free...good business from Juve there.
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