Athletic vs Leganes Betting Preview

This summer Athletic have sold just one player, but this transfer brought them 80 million €. Of course, we’re talking about young and talented goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga who was recently bough by Chelsea.

Problem for Athletic is the fact that they’re playing just with the Basque players, so usually they don’t have so much options on transfer market as their competition. Still, they were active this summer, and highest fee was payed for left-back Yuri Berchiche who arrived from PSG. Athletic have also bought right-back Ander Capa from Eibar, while his teammate Dani Garcia came on free transfer.

Athletic Club shocked fans when they announced that they had purchased Romanian defender Cristian Ganea from Viitorul Constanta. Some fans immediately questioned how he was eligible to meet the club’s Basque-only policy, but he had moved with his family to the Basque Country when he was young and spent time at local academies. He even represented the Basques U18 team at on point.

Also, it is worth noting that they signed the Argentinean coach Eduardo Berizzo who earlier did a great job in Sevilla and Celta.

Leganes surprisingly avoided relegation last season, but this summer they stayed without their great coach Asier Garitano who left to Real Sociedad. Mauricio Pellegrino is a decent replacement on paper and he did a really good job at Alaves two seasons ago on a similarly limited budget. Pellegrino was excellent in Alaves, but later he failed in the Premier League with Southampton.

During this summer Leganes sold Diego Rico to Bournemouth, but they also stayed without couple of players who were here on loan (Ruben Perez, Claudio Beauvue, Nordin Amrabat, Joseba Zaldua, Darko Brašanac…). Money that they received for Rico was spent for attacker Youssef En-Nesyri from Malaga and left winger Jose Manuel Arnaiz from Barcelona B, but once again they brought whole bunch of player on loan (Kenneth Omeruo, Juanfran, Jonathan Silva, Allan Nyom, Mikel Vesga, Guido Carrillo).

It is hard to say what to expect from this “new” Leganes lead by the new coach, but results during pre-season were more than decent. In their last two friendlies Leganes won against Real Zaragoza and Rayo Vallecano.