Since the early 2000s, Real Madrid seasons have been essentially interchangeable.
Each summer, Real collects as many of the most fashionable players as it can in order to replace its existing, now slightly less fashionable players. It adds to this collection a manager hired on the same terms and then it plays out a season where it mauls most opposition and “success” or “failure” is dictated by three or four games against Barcelona and one or two games in the Champions League. Finally, at only slightly less regular intervals, it sacks its manager and starts again.
In recent seasons—since Pep Guardiola started speaking German—Barcelona have joined in the Groundhog Day revival. Where in 2008, there was the one-off moment of a squad produced almost entirely in Barcelona, for Barcelona; now the methods are more routine and superficial. This summer, Luis Suarez joined for £75million—more, even, than Real spent on James Rodriguez. Last summer, Neymar turned up for a similar fee. Before them, it was Cesc Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez, whose exits, you’ll notice, facilitated the spending this time around. And whether it admits it or not, Barca’s terms of success are the exact same as Real’s.
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Both of La Liga’s biggest names are stuck on a tedious loop. They’ve constructed the two most valuable forward lines in history—Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suarez and Andres Iniesta meets Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez and Karim Benzema—and the predictability of it all, combined with the superficiality of it all, somehow makes the match-up seem dull. The question isn’t who’ll win; sadly, it’s more who cares?
Sure, they’ve pieced together all the best players. But what exactly does that piecing together process mean, other than that they’ve spent the most money? It’s not even any guarantee that they’ll be the best teams or play the best football. Real just lost 3-1 to Manchester United in a friendly in the U.S., suggesting—amazingly—that buying all the best individuals might not make the best group. Can you believe it?
In this context, Atletico Madrid exists as the only compelling side anywhere near the top of La Liga. With Atletico, you got the improbable lurch at glory last season, fuelled by a coach more determined than any other, and this summer you get the clever rebuilding job after that squad was inevitably picked apart by bigger clubs.
At Atletico, second-tier signings such as Mario Mandzukic and Antoine Griezmann offer far more to appreciate than Suarez or Rodriguez at Barca and Real. They represent the art of picking up undervalued players, the skill of fitting a potentially top class team together without much talent to spare and the genuine question of whether it will work or not. In terms of being interesting to watch, it all compares extremely favourably to Barca or Real, where eventually the answer will always be “yes, it will work, because we have unlimited funds.”
Atletico has stories you can buy into, rather than a stream of big name signings, which represent a single, shallow story at best. La Liga’s problem, though, is that Atletico is not only alone in being interesting and near the top, but also that it is the least likely of the top three to win again now that it has been knocked back further by the other two’s spending power. Even as last season’s champions, it’s a junior partner in the league to Real and Barca.
Whisper it, but it would be easy to suggest that this situation leaves La Liga looking slightly mundane ahead of the new season. I don’t want to be the one that says it, but relative to, say, the Premier League season that’s about to happen, La Liga has so many fewer stories to tell at its top end.
Soccer has already arrived in the U.S. and the 109,318 at the Big House is proof: http://t.co/1D34MAHYYM @sashakalra pic.twitter.com/AZfZjDyVsw
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) August 3, 2014
Where is the Louis van Gaal equivalent, trying to return Manchester United to the top of the league using almost the same squad as David Moyes finished seventh with, plus a few youth team guys? How can the three real contenders in La Liga compete with the seven teams who have a realistic chance of winning in England this season? The Premier League even has the super-power factor if you’re into that kind of thing, with Chelsea and Manchester City completing their full-to-bursting squads in the last few weeks.
There’s no renewed rivalry between Van Gaal and Jose Mourinho at the top of La Liga or anything as fun and new as that. There’s no Arsenal, returning to the big leagues after a decade away with a team riddled with pace and directness. Instead, there is, apart from Atletico Madrid, the same story that has played out for the last five years: Real Madrid’s superstar signings versus Barcelona’s.
Those two teams have spent £140million between them on bringing Rodriguez and Suarez into their teams, the absolute men of the footballing moment. But it hasn’t worked to make La Liga feel like the league of the moment, because it feels as though it’s all been done before. It’s just the same idea, albeit intensified, as we’ve already seen over and over again, and how interesting can that possibly be?
I’m not saying I won’t still enjoy watching La Liga or anything; I’m just saying it could do with a new writing team. For now, Diego Simeone and his Atletico Madrid side are probably the only ones who can do anything to save the show, so I guess we should probably all hope that Mandzukic is as good as signing as he seems.
Ethan Dean-Richards is a London-based writer. Follow him on Twitter.