From Arteta and Iraola to Emery and Lillo: How smallest Spanish province Gipuzkoa is shaping Premier League
When Mikel Arteta and Andoni Iraola embrace and head to their respective dugouts ahead of Bournemouth’s Premier League game against Arsenal on Saturday, it will mark the latest chapter in a story that stretches back three decades.
Similarly, it will be another notable moment for the smallest province in Spain that has come to have an outsized influence upon the Premier League and European football as a whole.
Nestled in the autonomous Basque region, Gipuzkoa has a population of 715,000 across roughly 2,000 square kilometres. Heading into the 2023/24 season, it accounted for a fifth of the managers in England’s top flight.
Arteta was ready for another tilt at the title with his Arsenal predecessor Unai Emery making waves at Aston Villa. Iraola was an eye-catching if controversial replacement for Gary O’Neil at Bournemouth. O’Neil soon found himself back in work at Wolves, where Julen Lopetegui’s departure turned the quartet into a trio.
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Another Gipuzkoan recently pacing Premier League technical was Juanma Lillo. Pep Guardiola required back surgery and his assistant and long-time mentor Lillo took charge of Manchester City’s wins over Sheffield United and Fulham. At that time, City’s director of football Txiki Begiristain was putting the final touches on deals to sign Matheus Nunes and Jeremy Doku. Begiristain is another Gipuzkoa native.
Look a little further afield and Xabi Alonso is making waves at Bayer Leverkusen as one of Europe's most highly-rated young coaches. At this point, you don’t really need telling where he’s from, do you?
This production line does not just relate to tacticians. A recent report by
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