Terzic has barely settled in and he is already giving off the kind of message Athletic badly needed: one hand on the steering wheel, the other doing the unglamorous work that keeps a club from drifting. That is the point here. This is not a column about a match, and it is not pretending the tension around the club has vanished. It has not. But Terzic's first appearances have at least shown a coach who understands that in this environment, authority and diplomacy have to arrive together.
The line attributed to him says everything. Use both hands. The right to guide the team firmly. The left, despite being naturally right-footed, to do the other job that comes with this place. That is not a throwaway detail. It is a window into how he wants to operate at Athletic: direct when he has to be, clever when the situation demands it, and aware that this club is never only about what happens on the pitch.
A club still carrying tension
The atmosphere around Athletic is not exactly relaxed. Renewals remain part of the conversation, expectations never really go away, and every move is watched closely. In that sense, Terzic has walked into the sort of job where early signals matter more than polished speeches. The club wants reassurance, but it also wants firmness. It wants someone who can guide, but also someone who can handle the wider noise without letting it swallow the football.
That is why the first visit matters so much. San Mamés against Sevilla is not just another date on a calendar. It is the first real test of how this new coach will be received in public and how quickly his methods will be judged in private. The delay to Barcelona only adds to the sense that the schedule itself is bending around bigger forces, with Spain in the World Cup semifinal pushing things back and reminding everyone that this club's plans never exist in isolation.
There is a temptation to overstate early impressions, but that would miss the point. The value of Terzic's first appearances is not that they solve everything. It is that they hint at a coach who understands the scale of the job. Athletic do not need a man who simply turns up and speaks loudly. They need someone who can manage the football and the atmosphere, the urgency and the awkwardness, the promise and the suspicion.
So yes, the message is simple, almost blunt: Terzic should use both hands. One to lead. One to deal with everything else. At Athletic, that is not a luxury. It is the minimum requirement.
