I'm leaving Athletic Bilbao, confirms Llorente

Juventus target Fernando Llorente has confirmed he plans to leave Athletic Bilbao.

As Goal.com exclusively revealed earlier this week, the Bianconeri are set to make a renewed €7 million bid to tempt the striker to move to Turin in January before rival suitors can begin negotiations.

Llorente has now confirmed his intention to depart the Basque side, although he conceded it was painful to quit his boyhood club.

"I'm leaving Athletic," he told Tuttosport. "The truth is that the project is very good and for me it's a pain, an absolute sadness not to play next year in the new San Mames, but football is like that."

The 27-year-old refused to be drawn on his destination, however, stressing that his sole focus was to continue training and playing for Marcelo Bielsa's side.

"Everything is in the hands of my representatives. I'm only focused on training, to train, to play," he added.

"I'm just thinking about football today, about our league."

Happy New Years Tuddor.

The thing is I've been saying Juve is and remain closest to Fernando Llorente and since the summer. Why? The reason is Llorente aside from his obvious Bilbai support has grown up not only to be a Serie A fan, but a hard core Juventino (to which is keeps down low about for respect to the fans).

Since he chose to go out of Athletic Club in the beginning of the season, the fans and Marcelo Bielsa have turned on him when no move was processed since asking for a transfer out of Euskadi isn't exactly met with geniality. Therefore Bielsa thought him a rather harsh lesson and has benched him permanently with some intermittent appearances off the bench here and there. Bielsa and Llorente both have agreed that its best to leave the club out of mutual terms, therefore why Llorente has made his decision public to leave Athletic Club.

Yes, he has interest in the PL yet his initial reason wanting to leave Athletic was because he wanted to fulfil his dream of joining Juve as otherwise he was relatively happy. Within the summer he pushed hard enough to request Athletic Club president Urrutia to force a move there.

Here are my factors on why and why he will not come to Juve.

Why he might not:

-Urrutia is a hard man to play business with when dealing with transfers especially when it comes to Basque golden boy Llorente

-Marotta; That name says it all as he has failed to address the striker need for quite some time. He might say "we are going for Llorente" but will likely end up acquiring Aquafresca knowing him.


Why he may join:

-Is a lifelong Juventino

-Is confirmed to be leaving Athletic Club

-Is out of contract this summer

-Isn't playing at all for Athletic nor will be starting


My prediction is Juve will move for him in the Winter Mercato but cut out by Urrutia then proceed to finally acquire him within the summer for free. I can't really predict since Juve and Marotta are unpredictable in their choices and successes but its all on the table as of now. Sources say Juve are just continually bidding for Llorente until Urrutia budges and sells Fernando. But Juve's interest is official and Athletic despite being difficult are willing to sell.

Plus side is Llorente knowing him will eventually force a move again. Under his calm demeanour lay a hot temper.

Arquitecto wrote:Happy New Years Tuddor.

The thing is I've been saying Juve is and remain closest to Fernando Llorente and since the summer. Why? The reason is Llorente aside from his obvious Bilbai support has grown up not only to be a Serie A fan, but a hard core Juventino (to which is keeps down low about for respect to the fans).

Since he chose to go out of Athletic Club in the beginning of the season, the fans and Marcelo Bielsa have turned on him when no move was processed since asking for a transfer out of Euskadi isn't exactly met with geniality. Therefore Bielsa thought him a rather harsh lesson and has benched him permanently with some intermittent appearances off the bench here and there. Bielsa and Llorente both have agreed that its best to leave the club out of mutual terms, therefore why Llorente has made his decision public to leave Athletic Club.

Yes, he has interest in the PL yet his initial reason wanting to leave Athletic was because he wanted to fulfil his dream of joining Juve as otherwise he was relatively happy. Within the summer he pushed hard enough to request Athletic Club president Urrutia to force a move there.

Here are my factors on why and why he will not come to Juve.

Why he might not:

-Urrutia is a hard man to play business with when dealing with transfers especially when it comes to Basque golden boy Llorente

-Marotta; That name says it all as he has failed to address the striker need for quite some time. He might say "we are going for Llorente" but will likely end up acquiring Aquafresca knowing him.


Why he may join:

-Is a lifelong Juventino

-Is confirmed to be leaving Athletic Club

-Is out of contract this summer

-Isn't playing at all for Athletic nor will be starting


My prediction is Juve will move for him in the Winter Mercato but cut out by Urrutia then proceed to finally acquire him within the summer for free. I can't really predict since Juve and Marotta are unpredictable in their choices and successes but its all on the table as of now. Sources say Juve are just continually bidding for Llorente until Urrutia budges and sells Fernando. But Juve's interest is official and Athletic despite being difficult are willing to sell.

Plus side is Llorente knowing him will eventually force a move again. Under his calm demeanour lay a hot temper.

Thanx for the infos
i guess the basques were not very pretty with Llorente after his words in the summer
So, the certain thing is that he has no future at Bilbao... Knowing Marotta, i hope he won't surprise us all with a boriello/bendtner type move, rather than llorente... But i didn't know Llorente was a juventino from childhood, that would give Juve the advantage over City, Chelsea or other financial powerhouses... I trust his moral demeanor and fighting spirit of the basques rather than Marotta actions in this transfer that doesn't advantage us over epls sides..

The Bilbai's definitely aren't happy with Llorente despite being a near club legend. It comes with the package if you grow up in the province and play within a Basque club. He knows it but withstanding it is quite difficult.

I just don't see him going to the PL as his interest was purely out of wanting to go to Juventus and not for the sake of moving out of Athletic. Marotta really is unambitious at times and couldn't tell the difference between a world class and mediocre striker if it hit him on the head. I don't see PL teams going for him since he is under the radar this season after not playing close to anything and since Marotta likes to snare players who aren't right on the map, it might just materialize.

As of now the negotiations will surely begin. Conte is a fan of the player.