Athletic Bilbao has experienced one of its most turbulent summers in recent years. Although it boasts its identity and a unique model in world soccer, it has ended up exposed at the close of the transfer window.
Far from strengthening its squad with the desired impact promised by its board, reality has revealed management errors that have exposed the San Mamés club.
The failure can't be explained solely by a bureaucratic problem. A series of decisions have undermined the credibility of a club that, not so long ago, publicly criticized the methods of other clubs.
The Laporte case has become the best example of how Athletic hasn't known how to handle the situation.
The speech against Barça that now haunts them
In Bilbao, they haven't hesitated to launch reproaches at FC Barcelona during the last transfer window. Barça's attempt to sign Nico Williams was met with messages of outrage and veiled accusations of destabilization. Athletic presented itself as a victim of a system in which release clauses set the rules of the game.
However, the same club that pointed fingers at others ended up using that same tactic to strengthen itself. The inconsistency of the speech has caused both internal and external criticism.
When it comes to signing players, Athletic hasn't hesitated to resort to clauses to secure players who, in many cases, had no intention of wearing the red-and-white jersey.
The Laporte case, a disastrous management
The icing on the cake has been the failed signing of Aymeric Laporte. His return was announced with great fanfare, the fans were already celebrating it, and the board presented it as the masterstroke of the summer. But everything fell apart due to a bureaucratic error that has left the club exposed before all of Spain.
Laporte won't play at San Mamés because Athletic didn't know how to properly close the deal. An administrative mistake has ruined weeks of negotiations and has turned what should have been a source of pride into a true embarrassment. The feeling in Bilbao is one of historic ridicule, with the player left in limbo and the club's image seriously damaged.
A transfer window that exposes Athletic
Meanwhile, Barça and Real Madrid are making high-impact signings, Athletic has been singled out as a club unable to compete in the market.
The commitment to the purity narrative has been called into question, and the failure with Laporte will go down in history as one of the biggest recent blunders in LaLiga.
Athletic, which boasted of doing things differently, has found itself trapped by its own inconsistency. From criticizing Barça to using the same methods it once condemned, including negligent management that has frustrated the most important deal of the summer.
The result is a transfer window that leaves the club in question and its fans deeply disappointed.