Spain’s dominance of European soccer has been absolute over the past eight years or so. The country has produced five continental champions in that time, with the Champions League and Europa League won by Spanish clubs in each of the past three seasons.
That supremacy has recently manifested itself in soccer’s most glittering domestic title race.
While La Liga’s strength can be questioned further down the table, there is no doubting the pedigree of those at the top. In fact, it could be argued that over the past two years Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid have been not just Spain’s best three teams, but Europe’s predominant trio, too.
This season’s race for Spanish domestic honours might be rather different, though. Antoine Griezmann, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo still give the division significant star-power, but Spain’s best teams are now no longer the forces they were just a couple years ago. This summer could prove a watershed moment in the recent history of La Liga.
Barcelona, for instance, find themselves at something of a juncture. The Catalans faded away drastically towards the end of last season, only winning the league title by a single point and meekly conceding their Champions League crown to their Clasico rivals. They might still boast the best starting lineup in Europe, but their lack of depth is costing them.
However, political tussles and financial concerns have made the reinforcement of their squad rather difficult this season. Dani Alves was offloaded to Juventus in something of a salary dump, with Barcelona also set to sell their first-choice goalkeeper Claudio Bravo to Manchester City to ease the financial pressure on the Camp Nou club at present.
There have been additions, but none that will significantly strengthen Luis Enrique’s squad. Samuel Umtiti, Lucas Digne, Denis Suarez and Andre Gomes have all arrived, with close to £70 million spent, but what have they really got for their money? If there is a transfer strategy in place at Barcelona right now it’s difficult to decipher it.
Rather than giving La Masia graduates such as Munir El Haddadi and Sergi Roberto the chance to prove themselves, the Catalans are going against the grain of their own identity by overpaying for second-tier talent in the transfer market. Enrique wants a back-up option to Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar, but he reportedly wants Paco Alcacer to be that figure, ostracising Munir further.
Barcelona’s activity in the transfer market this summer is reminiscent of Real Madrid’s wasteful summer ahead of the 2007-08 season, when the capital club made a number of mis-guided signings that ultimately proved unsuccessful and costly. The same mistakes might have made at Camp Nou this year.
Conversely, Real Madrid have been almost static in the transfer market this summer. Only Alvaro Morata has arrived at the Santiago Bernabeu, and even he was signed through the activation of a buy-back clause. It looks entirely feasible that this summer might be a Galactico-free one.
Rather bizarrely for a team coming into the season as European champions, this Real Madrid side are far from vintage. Zinedine Zidane and his players almost stumbled their way to Champions League glory last term, with major questions still persisting over his team. If last season was one of transition, a near impossible standard has been set.
That transition means there could still be many to leave the club in this transfer window, with Isco and James Rodriguez both linked with a move away from the Spanish capital. Their departure would signal a departure from the Galacticos approach that has come to characterize Real Madrid, especially with the promotion of youngsters Marco Asensio and Lucas Vazquez into the first-team fold.
Atletico Madrid have, in contrast to their city rivals, been busy in the transfer market, but the concern for them is that they might have been too fluid in constructing their team over the past two years or so. There have been a lot of incomings and outgoings at the Vicente Calderon in that time – will that ultimately have a detrimental effect?
Of course, the Spanish title race is likely to be as captivating as ever this season. The continuation of the personal duel between Messi and Ronaldo alone will hold the attention, but the contest to be crowned the country’s champions might be won by whoever is the least flawed.
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