Passion, pride and Lion Tamers: A look at Athletic Club ahead of their Champions League clash with Arsenal in Bilbao

Tim Cooper takes an in-depth look at Arsenal's unique Basque opponents Athletic Club 

The first in a series of must-read Champions League analysis series from the legendary journalist Tim Cooper 

Athletic Club

Athletic Club - or, as we always used to call them until recently, Athletic Bilbao - are unique in Spanish football for their policy (introduced in 1911) of using only ethnic Basque players in their team. Which makes them massive over-achievers considering the restricted resources at their disposal. They’re the fourth-most successful team in Spain, with eight titles to their name, and are second only to Barcelona for Copa del Rey titles with 24.

They are also one of only three clubs - the others being Barca and Real Madrid - never to have been relegated since the formation of La Liga in 1929; their consistent success a huge tribute to the way the club is run, and managed. Then again, they’ve never won a European trophy and have only reached the Champions League group stage twice, in 1998 and 2014, and failed to get past the Group stage on either occasion (though they did reach the quarter-finals of the old European Cup back in 1957).

They’ve been shrewd operators in the transfer market, maximising value for the players they sell, like our new second keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, whom they sold for a record £72 million to Chelsea in 2018 - rather less than the £5 million we paid for him this summer - and earning praise for their youth policy (known as cantera), consistently bringing through and developing young Basque players. They are managed by Ernesto Valverde, currently in his fifth spell with the club as player and manager after winning two league titles in his three years at Barcelona.

Surprisingly, we’ve never played them in a competitive match but of course we beat them 3-0 in the Emirates Cup only a month ago, when Viktor Gyokeres scored his first Arsenal goal (along with Saka and Havertz). And we spent much of this year being linked with a bid for their Spain left-winger Nico Williams before he signed a new contract with Sporting.

Despite our friendly victory, Sporting will be a dangerous opponent, particularly on their own turf, where they’ve already beaten Sevilla and Rayo Vallecano this season to get off to a flying start. As well as left-winger Nico Williams, they’ve got the current Spain goalkeeper, Unai Simon, and centre-back Dani Vivian, plus the home-grown strikers Inaki Williams, a Ghana international, and Morocco’s Maroan Sannadi.

Trivia fact: Athletic were given their nickname The Lions because their home ground, San Mames, was named after a woman (Mammes) who was made a saint after performing a miracle when the Romans threw her to the lions - and she pacified them.