In 1990, after two years as a Barcelona player, Ernesto Valverde joined Athletic Bilbao in a deal worth 125 million pesetas (around €750,000). Almost 30 years later, he's back at Barcelona, but Athletic, he says, remain the club he most identities with.
"Regardless of your career, all the teams you've played for, every person has a team they identify with and mine is Athletic," Valverde said in an interview with Barca's official website this week.
Valverde was born in Extremadura but moved to the capital of the Basque Country, Vitoria, as a youngster, which permitted him to represent Athletic. After joining the club from Barca, he spent six memorable years in Bilbao, scoring 44 goals and forming a memorable partnership with Jose Angel Ziganda, who replaced him in the San Mames dugout this summer.
Known as "Cuco" and "El Txingurri" (Crafty and the Ant), they were an especially dangerous duo when Jupp Heynckes was in charge of the club between 1992 and 1994. Both have grown old with Athletic since, too.
Valverde first managed the B team in 2002 and then the first team in 2003 for a season before leaving for Espanyol. Unfinished business saw him return again in 2013. His second spell lasted four seasons and took in 213 games. In total, he's clocked up 306 games in charge of Athletic, more than any other coach, with Javier Clemente (289) in second place.
This weekend he returns to the new San Mames, where he will be greeted by a host of familiar faces, for the first time as an opposition manager.
"It will be an emotional game for me," he said on Tuesday. "It always has been when I have been back [to the old San Mames] with other teams, too. I won't talk about statistics, though, because it's not gone well!"
He's right. It's not gone well. In total, he was on the away side at the old San Mames eight times, three times as a player and five times as a manager. As a player, he lost all three games and as a manager he lost four times (twice with Espanyol, once with Villarreal and once with Valencia). His only saving grace was a draw as Espanyol coach in the Copa del Rey.
This time, though, he's going back with bigger weapons, namely Lionel Messi. There are injury problems -- Andres Iniesta, Ousmane Dembele, Arda Turan, Aleix Vidal, Rafinha and Thomas Vermaelen are all sidelined -- but Barcelona start the match as clear favourites against an Athletic side halfway down the table.
Since the Spanish Super Cup defeat to Real Madrid, they've embarked on a 13-game unbeaten run in all competitions and eight wins and a draw in La Liga sees them sitting top of the table, four points clear of second-placed Valencia.
Photo by Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images
If Valverde can keep up this sort of form throughout the season and in the coming years, he will make as many friends in Barcelona as he left behind in Bilbao.
President Josep Maria Bartomeu says he's already earned the love of the Barca's supporters and this weekend he can match the club's best ever start to a league campaign by getting one over on not just his old club, but an old friend, too.
The friendship between Valverde and Ziganda, "Crafty and The Ant", will be put on the back-burner for 90 minutes, mind. And, anyway, Valverde may feel he owes Ziganda one. When he was fleetingly in charge of Villarreal in 2009, he was beaten by Ziganda's Xerez, who in turn earned their first ever top-flight win. It was the beginning of the end for Valverde and by January he had been sacked, one of few blots on his CV.
None of that will be on the ever-professional Valverde's mind, though, when the game gets underway in familiar surroundings.
He's continually showed since being installed at Camp Nou that he's able to make sure he and his players are focused on the pitch and not events off it. There have already been enough distractions in his short tenure to cite as examples, the latest being Catalan parliament's unilateral independence declaration on Friday.
"It will be special," he said of facing Athletic. "Of course, there are people [there] that I have shared lots of emotions with over the years... but this is a football match and you need to forget the niceties and focus on the game.
"I'm a professional and the objective is to win the game. Emotional matters will be left for after. I was there for four years this time, there is a wonderful atmosphere at the club and it was a great place to work, but I'm going there to win, regardless of having lots of friends there. They will still be friends whatever the result."
Source: espn.co.uk