After becoming a promotion hero last season, Asier Villalibre agreed to return to Deportivo Alavés, but Athletic did not accept his departure as they did not have a replacement striker of his level
After being a very important player for the club and becoming one of the most popular footballers among fans, Asier Villalibre will ask Athletic to return to Alavés. In the Vitorian team he had the chance for continuity, which he always lacked in Bilbao. And the truth is that the continuity has done him a lot of good as he was a crucial player last season.
So much so that the Gernika striker was crucial to the team’s rise, returning to the elite of Spanish football after a journey through the second division. Last summer market Asier Villalibre was about to return to Alavés, but in the end the conditions for this were not met. But at the next January market everything will be different.
Villalibre and Alavés, very attentive to Javier Martón
As we have commented on ElGolDigital in the last few days, Iñaki Williams will be out of Athletic’s Africa Cup of Nations for a month. The continental competition will meet for the first time the Bilbao team, who will lose a very important player to their attack. That’s why they’re looking for alternatives so that the team doesn’t suffer.
At the moment, The option that Athletic likes the most is Javier Martón, who leaves the ranks of Mirandés. He is currently on loan and the Bilbao club are keeping an eye on him as they have a clause to pick him up at any time. And the decision they make with him in January will shape Villalibre’s fate.
Martón, the key to the operation
Should Athletic finally decide to implement the clause to recover Javier Martón, Asier Villalibre will ask to go to Alavés. But if they decide that it is best for the player to stay at Mirandés until the end of the season, it will be much harder for the Vitorian team to win back the promotion hero and postpone everything until next summer.
Be it as it may, The paths of Villalibre and Alavés will cross. Whether in January or in the summer, both parties will meet again because the player felt very important in Vitoria and has fond memories. Now we just have to wait and see how everything is sorted out, with Athletic deciding on the future of both players.