Rodrigo Battaglia says he can’t wait for the new season to get underway.

We travel to Athletic Bilbao for our season curtain raiser on Monday evening, and the midfielder believes he and his team-mates are ready for the challenge that awaits them after he completed a permanent move to the club. 

"The team is very well, we train in a very complete way, focused on the start of the league to arrive in the best possible way,” he told journalists at a pre-match press conference. "It is a very tough team with very good players. In addition to a complicated stadium with a great atmosphere.

"He [Javier Aguirre] gave me a lot of confidence in the last matches of the previous season and we achieved our objective. I am very happy to be able to continue here, where there are very good people that I appreciate very much.”

With work now underway on our stadium, Battaglia is relishing the opportunity to have fans closer than ever to the action.

“We are happy because the stadium is being updated, they showed us how it will look in the future and it is going to be very nice,” he continued. “It is positive that people are closer to listen and feel them.”