Bilbao Athletic manager Carlos Gurpegui, Athletic Club's B team, looks set to leave management after just three years of coaching.
Gurpegui, 43 years old, spent 15 seasons at Athletic as a player, and after working as an ambassador for Los Leones, he went into coaching in 2021, before taking over the affiliated club Baskonia. He will spend two good seasons there, before moving to Bilbao Athletic, where this season he wrote a historic campaign.
This season they secured promotion to Primera RFEF (third tier), after a season in which they collected 82 points from 34 games, losing only twice throughout the season. Athletic offer him a new deal, as per Brand, but Gurpegui decided to refuse the offer. He decided after a period of reflection that he does not want to continue in coaching. Well-liked for his honesty, Gurpegui seems to have simply decided he doesn't like the job enough to continue.
While Athletic will hope that Ernesto Valverde stays in the job as long as possible, there will undoubtedly be some reticence that perhaps a readymade replacement for El Txingurri will no longer be in place, bearing in mind that Gurpegui has also played under Valverde.
