The mood around Athletic has been heavy enough for a while: renewals, salaries, suspicion around the boardroom, and the kind of background noise that can drag a club down if it is left to fester. So it is no surprise that Terzic’s first appearances have been grabbed as the main reason for optimism. In a club that has spent too long looking over its shoulder, the new coach has arrived looking like the one person capable of pointing everything back towards football.
That is why Jon Uriarte’s message matters. In essence, he is asking for Terzic to use both hands. The right hand, to guide the team firmly. The left hand, too, because even if he is right-footed, he clearly has enough control to use it as well. It is a neat image, but it also tells you something important: Athletic are not looking for a decorative figure. They are looking for somebody who can steady a club that has been too tense for comfort.
Why Terzic already feels important
Terzic’s early presence has been the best thing to cling to because it is concrete. Hope is cheap in football; evidence is harder to come by. What the club needed was a first impression that felt like direction rather than drift, and that is what these first appearances have provided. It is still early, of course, and nobody should pretend one clean set of gestures solves structural problems. But when the atmosphere around a club becomes suspicious enough, even a small sign of control can feel significant.
That significance will be tested quickly. Athletic’s first appointment is at San Mamés against Sevilla, and that is the next confirmed match to hang everything on. A home debut always carries extra weight, but this one comes with a little more edge because the club are searching for reassurance as much as points. A neat training-ground story means very little if the first real evening under the lights turns messy.
There is also the broader context that cannot be ignored. The column’s references to previous declarations at the end of the season, along with the lingering tension over contracts and salaries, remind you that Athletic are still trying to settle themselves off the pitch. Then there is the delayed visit to Barcelona, postponed because the Spanish national team is in the semifinal. All of it feeds the same picture: this is a club surrounded by interruptions, arguments and unfinished business.
That is precisely why Terzic feels like the central figure. Not because he has magically fixed anything, and not because anyone should start talking in grand final terms after a handful of appearances. But because he has at least given Athletic something they have been short of: a reason to believe the next step might actually be forward.
The challenge now is obvious. Convert first impressions into authority. Turn the promise of balance into actual control. And if Uriarte really means what he says, Terzic will need to keep using both hands — because Athletic are not asking for a gesture. They are asking for a way out of the noise.
