Between a row of white apartment buildings and an artificial pitch set into the green hills of Berio in San Sebastian that Antiguoko now call home, there is a strip of land where Mikel Arteta, Xabi Alonso and Andoni Iraola learned their craft. "The centre circle was just over there," says Roberto Montiel, the club's long-serving coach and vice-president, as he takes a seat in what is now a public park. He rubs his thumb and forefinger together as he recalls the texture of the old playing surface.
"The pitch wasn't like the new one up there. It was smaller and made of small stones, like gravel. The balls weren't like the ones now either.
When they got wet, they became heavy. You would slip and slide, and if you fell, you'd end up with a terrible scrape." The games played here by this neighbourhood club's celebrated alumni, two of whom meet as managers when Arsenal face Chelsea on Sky Sports on Sunday, are the stuff of local legend. "Even then you could see their vision for the game," adds Montiel.
"On this pitch made of gravel, trying to pass those balls when it was raining, with puddles all over the place, with everything getting dirty. Honestly, it was something special to watch. The teams from those '81 and '82 generations were incredible." Arteta and Iraola played in the latter age group; Alonso the former.
"It was like a national team of the best players in the area and it made us an unbeatable team," says Alvaro Parra, a former Antiguoko team-mate and close friend of Arteta's. "I remember games against Real Sociedad that were so easy. They would come to play us and we would beat them 5-0.
Athletic Club would come and we would beat them as well. The team became known as the Basque Dream Team." The club continues to turn out talent. Over at their offices, a mile further into town, near Ondarreta beach, Montiel jokes that they need more wall space to continue displaying signed shirts from a list of top-division graduates that now runs to more than 40 names.
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