The frustrated signing of Fernando Llorente opens a schism in Athletic

Since he assumed the sports management of Athletic, in January 2019,

has been trying to convince his superiors of the advisability of the return of

to San Mamés.

A proposal that has always had the strong support of the coach, a

who has been lamenting for a year and a half that he lacks a center forward to complete his squad.

And the Athletic market is what it is.

It was (and is) Llorente or nobody.

The operation, however, was rejected on no less than two occasions by the board of directors.

One as soon as he took office, at the beginning of last year, and another this same summer, at the insistence of Garitano.

In the face of the bad sports situation of the team and the pressure of the coach, however, everything changed in the last hours of the market.

The president,

, finally gave his arm to twist and authorized the negotiations for the imminent return of the Riojan forward, who had (and has) a contract with Naples, which does not have him.

So between Sunday and Monday everything was reactivated.

Alkorta and professionals of the club got down to work and contacted Llorente and his brother

, who acts as their representative.

The agreement was quick, because the world champion has long wanted to return to Bilbao.

Napoli did not put up a major problem to agree on a loan until the end of this season, because they had plenty of striker.

The player, for his part, ruled out other options he was handling, such as going to Sampdoria, to bet everything on Athletic.

Open wounds

An always controversial return was already being negotiated due to the way in which his departure occurred, with Llorente rejecting his renewal and with then-president

refusing to transfer him, causing him to exhaust his last year of contract before leaving for Juventus with the letter of freedom.

A still open wound for part of the fans, who do not forgive him for that and, despite the shortcomings of the squad, did not want the return of the 35-year-old forward on the last day of this market.

That was the matter until Athletic backed down and told Llorente that it was canceling the negotiations a few hours before the closing.

After having reached a principle of three-way agreement, the Bilbao club backed down due to the explicit veto of the operation of two of the executives with the most economic power of the board of directors, whose opinion weighed more than that of Elizegi, Alkorta and Garitano together .

Llorente did not sign for Athletic, he had to stay at Napoli because he closed the rest of the options he had and the image of the club has ended on the ground.

The summary is that Athletic negotiated the signing of Llorente without knowing if he wanted to sign him.

Unheard.

Accounts to be approved

It remains to be seen the consequences that this schism will have on the rojiblanco club, which also affects the squad.

One of the franchise players,

, spoke on social networks, responding to the publication of a media outlet, saying that "we have done what we could" to promote Llorente's return to Bilbao and applauding a video in the that a journalist harshly criticizes the board of directors for such a farce.

Some players (not just Yuri) get upset, the coach is left without his desired signing (he has also run out of

), the sports director is disallowed and the president sees his opinion annulled by that of two rank-and-file managers.

And all this with some decisive accounts to be approved in the Assembly to be held in the next month and a half.

If last year it already managed to carry them out by the minimum, due to the frontal opposition that this board has had since the same day it was elected against the continuing candidacy headed by

, now it seems impossible that the compromisers partners Give Elizegi the oxygen balloon she needs.

And, to top it all, the team is in relegation places.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• sports

• football

• Athletic Bilbao

• First division

FootballGareth Bale, on loan to Tottenham for a year, which also buys Sergio Reguilón

Soccer Zidane's offensive gibberish: many names, few goals and a dream on the horizon called Mbappé

LaLiga Santander 2020 - 2021Ansu Fati already costs 400 million euros

See links of interest

• Last minute

• Spanish translator

• Programming

• 2020 calendar

• Movies Today

• Topics

• Pablo Carreño - Daniel Altmaier, live

• Stage 4 of the Giro, live: Catania - Villafranca Tirrena