Real Madrid triumph, Barcelona troubled, Leganés luckless
Well, that’s it for the league season – at least for a few weeks anyway.
The new term is scheduled to kick-off in early September and with European competition to play out and the transfer window about to set the money rolling around the continent again, there’ll be plenty for us to talk about. For today though, let’s have a bit of a recap of how the league closed after the final couple of Matchdays.
Real Madrid locked out the title in fairly typical fashion with a workmanlike 2-1 win at home to Villareal, while Barcelona endured an embarrassing 1-2 defeat to Osasuna. The fact that the Blaugrana were in a forlorn pursuit of the new champions should hardly hide the signals coming out of the Camp Nou after that home defeat. Despite the visitors being down to ten men following Enric Gallego’s dismissal, the game pretty much summed up Barça’s season, as Messi confirmed. "We didn't expect to finish in this way, but it sums up the year for us.”
The sentiment, as much as the words, convey a disturbing message for all Cules. Messi sounded tired and resigned. “We are a weak team who can be beaten with enough intensity and enthusiasm. We have lost a lot of points which we shouldn't have done. We have been very inconsistent. We need to be self-critical, starting with the players, but also across the entire club. We are Barcelona, and we are obliged to win every game." He also said, unsurprisingly, that things had to change at the club, and despite talk that Quique Setién is likely to remain as coach for the completion of the Champions League, rumours of a new coach being in place for next season are only growing in tandem with reports of a rift between the coach and Messi. If true, that would surely be fatal for Setién. AS recently reported that both Patrick Kluivert and Laurent Blanc have joined the list of potential replacements being drawn up at the club.
Real Madrid’s future looks more assured, but given the fact that their second top scorer, centre-back and skipper Sergio Ramos with 11 strikes, was the only player other than Benzema to hit double figures for league goals, the area requiring urgent improvement is clear. Luka Jovi has been a disappointment and very likely will be elsewhere by the time the new season gets underway. Eden Hazard will hope for better luck with injuries, but even in his best days with Chelsea his goals tally was often inconsistent. Zidane will want a top notch back up for his number one striker, and expect Florentino Pérez to do the business required. Kylian Mbappé won’t be arriving until next summer at the earliest now, and Zidane will not be willing to wait.
As well as Ramos’s exploits in attack, the defence has been the cornerstone of Madrid’s success. Thibaut Courtois battled through an early season trough to become the first Los Blancos goalkeeper to win the Zamora Trophy since the great Iker Casillas, back in the 2007-08 season. Very laudable of course, but Zidane is unlikely to be happy if the defence is his main weapon next term.
Tip of the hat must go to Diego Simeone and Julen Lopetegui. Both guided their teams to 70 points and qualification for the Champions League.
Together with Monchi, the former Spain coach has done well at Sevilla, but Simeone continues his excellent, and often unheralded, success with Atléti. Before his arrival at the club, in the half century between 1959 and 2009, Atlético Madrid had only qualified for Europe’s top competition on eight occasions. Simeone has now equalled that figure by achieving qualification for the last eight seasons in a row. Muchas felicidades, el Cholo!
Villareal and Real Sociedad take the fifth and sixth places, meaning they qualify for the Europa League.
The latter, and Athletic Club have agreed to delay the Copa del Rey Final until it can be played in front of fans at some unspecified future date, and the Europa League qualifying place that would normally go to the winners has been forfeited, and offered up to seventh place team, Granada. With Sociedad having achieved league qualification anyway, the decision was less of a sacrifice than that offered to their fans by Athletic Club. Forgoing the chance of European football next term, to ensure their fans get the opportunity to fully experience the occasion is a brave gesture. I hope it gets rewarded with the trophy.
The Basque clubs’ move has also provided due reward for the work that Diego Martínez has put in with Granada. The success of the club over recent times is a reflection of the young coach’s abilities. He’s quickly becoming hot property in Spanish football and it seems likely that, pretty soon, an offer will be made by a wealthier club to whisk him away. Sad to say, but it’s almost the penalty of success for Granada. Let’s hope there’s still more to come from Martínez at the Nuevo Estadio de Los Cármenes next season though. It’s always refreshing to see a promoted club prosper so well.
At the bottom end, Espanyol have endured a torrid season, and lose their place in the top tier for the first time since 1994. Dropping down with them are Mallorca and luckless Leganés. It’s so difficult not to feel sympathy for Javier Aguirre and his players. Despite being screwed over by the weird regulations that saw their top striker snaffled away but unable to replace him, they fought to the very end and only missed out on salvation by a point. A terrific victory in Bilbao showed their resolution but, needing a win on the last day against the champions proved just too big an ask. If there’s any justice, they’ll be back in the top division soon.
Talking of the new season’s top tier, LaLiga will be welcoming Cadiz and Huesca into the fold as the clubs fill the automatic promotion spots from the Segunda. Who comes up with them though remains up in the air with the play-offs still to be decided, so I’ll be keeping an eye on that process. Also, in the coming weeks, I’ll be using some time to look back a little and highlight some of the great players, managers, games and events from the history of LaLiga. Hasta luego mis amigos!