Mikel González: “The team has a clear identity with Valverde”

Mikel González, Athletic Club's director of football, described Ernesto Valverde's decision to renew his contract as "great news" while praising the head coach's work so far this season.

Valverde put pen to paper on a one-year extension on Friday morning and will lead the Athletic men's first team until June 2024.

"He's one of the best coaches in the world, the best possible choice for Athletic. He knows the club perfectly, he's been a player here, a head coach in three spells and he's always been successful. Under Ernesto the team has an identity, clear ideas and courage," Mikel said in an interview with Club media.

"We're two points behind fifth [in LaLiga] and in a Copa semi-final that is going to be very tough. When you see the team doing so well, with the fans behind them and a great day-to-day atmosphere at Lezama, sometimes you don't need to wait until the end of the season [to make a decision].

"This helps us a lot in planning for next season in terms of the squad and internal projects under the guidance of Ernesto, who is a pleasure to work with. It will give us more time in terms of the market and decision making."

González also revealed that Ernesto made no demands about the squad before signing the deal, saying: "The coach knows the market situation and he knows the work we've been doing for months trying to tie down players to the Club for many more years."

With six players currently on loan at LaLiga Smartbank clubs, Mikel said they were progressing and improving as hoped, while singling out Asier Villalibre's recent performances at Deportivo Alavés.

He said: "We're very happy with the loans. We renewed Asier's contract for two years with the medium term in mind, but he also needed minutes. He had a lot of offers at national and international level but we decided on Alavés because Luis García Plaza's style is practically perfect for him and he's scored three goals in two games."

The director of football reiterated that the Women's first team is going through "a season of regeneration" but he fully believes the young squad will keep advancing under Iraia Iturregi.

"There are very young players in key positions. They have the youngest starting XI in the First Division, with an average age of 23.5," Mikel added.

"This has led to some difficult moments, such as the current slump which is taking us away from the goals we set in the summer. But we are positive and we have complete confidence in Iraia and her team. We understand that this is part of the process and they will recover."

Mikel went on to admit that Bilbao Athletic's situation in the First RFEF is worrying but insisted there is enough talent in the squad to feed the first team when the time comes.

"In the summer we decided to give a number of important players a move to professional football. We put together a very young squad, 70% of which had played for Basconia the season before," he continued.

"The results are not coming and we're being self critical about it. Nobody can be happy with how we're competing collectively, but we must not lose focus. The main objective is that the players are ready to play first team football.

"Even though the team is in poor form, we're confident there's enough potential and that some of those footballers will be playing at San Mames in the future."