{"id":920574,"date":"2026-07-17T18:13:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T23:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/17\/terzic-says-athletic-job-is-not-a-project\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T18:13:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T23:13:17","slug":"terzic-says-athletic-job-is-not-a-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/17\/terzic-says-athletic-job-is-not-a-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Terzic says Athletic job is not a \u2018project\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer <\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Edin Terzic insists his role at Athletic Club is not to oversee a &#8220;project&#8221;, arguing they are already enshrined as one of Spain&#8217;s top clubs and should have high expectations.<\/p>\n<p>Terzic was announced as Ernesto Valverde&#8217;s successor in May, following the latter&#8217;s decision to walk away from San Mames at the end of 2025-26.<\/p>\n<p>The former Borussia Dortmund boss, who had two spells at Signal Iduna Park and oversaw 219 games in charge of the Bundesliga giants, officially started work last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Terzic&#8217;s first friendly match at the helm resulted in a 3-0 win over fifth-tier CD Derio on Wednesday, and he is aiming high ahead of 2026-27.<\/p>\n<p>Asked at a press conference to summarise his first impression of the club, Terzic said: &#8220;Resoundingly positive.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have found great professionals, a group of people with an excellent predisposition to work. The first 10 days have been exceptional.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re laying the groundwork and getting to know each other better, and my first impression is absolutely unbeatable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Training in front of our fans today!<\/p>\n<p>Great to see you, Athleticzales! <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/AthleticClub?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#AthleticClub<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vitvBXbNiJ\">pic.twitter.com\/vitvBXbNiJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Athletic Club (@Athletic_en) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Athletic_en\/status\/2077688512606826715?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Athletic finished a disappointing 12th in LaLiga last season, having placed fifth in 2023-24 and fourth in 2024-25.<\/p>\n<p>They also endured a poor return to the Champions League last term, finishing 29th of 36 teams in the league phase and missing out on a place in the knockout-stage play-offs.<\/p>\n<p>But Terzic believes it should be a case of evolution, rather than revolution, for Athletic.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am not in favour of using the word &#8216;project&#8217; when talking about a group of people,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Athletic Club is not a project, it is a consolidated institution that we must protect and grow.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My main job is to coach, but the absolute priority of this team must be to compete on the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If we are able to learn from each game, we will improve our football and increase our chances of victory.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Terzic&#8217;s first competitive game in charge of Athletic will be against Sevilla on August 22, before his team travel to Barcelona for their first away match of the LaLiga season.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.soccernews.com\/terzic-says-athletic-job-is-not-a-project\/401968\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a>SoccerNews Editorial Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer Edin Terzic insists his role at Athletic Club is not to oversee a &#8220;project&#8221;, arguing they are already enshrined as one of Spain&#8217;s top clubs and should have high expectations. Terzic was announced as Ernesto Valverde&#8217;s successor in May, following the latter&#8217;s decision to walk away from San Mames at the end of 2025-26. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":920575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30608,2005,119894],"tags":[20830,119893],"class_list":["post-920574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-athletic","category-soccer","category-terzic","tag-athletic","tag-terzic"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/920575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}