Now I don’t know how closely people tend to follow a single league, but if you’ve followed La Liga over the last decade I think you’ll agree how sad the state of La Liga is.
Theres about 5 clubs that play attractive football at a decent level and 3 that try but have the quality of a midtable championship side.
Ignoring the non footballing issues, from consistent racial abuse to sexism etc (Rubiales and Vini cases are only the tip of the massive iceberg). There’s terrible refereeing and more time wasting than any other of the top 7 leagues.
The football being played is just sad, Spain is still thought of as a league with highly technical sides playing one touch passes and building complicated structures. Well other than Barca and Madrid(who arent defined by their possession play anyways), not a single club does this at a European level.
Sociedad, Villareal and Betis come close but have lost key players this season since they have no financial power either, despite being top 6 clubs in the league. Also lost players to injuries thanks to too much football being played.
Simeone and Atletico have ofc evolved over the years, but barring Griezmann theres not a single player in la liga that is a star outside of Madrid and Barca.
Girona and returning Las Palmas play with their defined style and do a good job but clearly lack the quality and talent to be a top side, they can’t attract even half decent players and nor can they afford it. Watching them play against top 7 sides is sad.
Athletic Club are interesting in so far as they play mostly academy players due to their self imposed Basque players only rule and then lose any player who outgrows them anyways, they havent had a player who could finish off chances in my living memory.
Celta Vigo and Valencia used to be top 7 sides competing for European spots. Peter Lim has suceeded in destroying Valencia meanwhile Celtas philosophy for 5 years has been Aspas and InshaAllah. Tho I’m hopeful with the arrival of Benitez, Bamba and hopefully Larsen improving.
Watching Getafe is the saddest thing in life. (Noone will disagree here, not even Bordalas. And yes they just got Greenwood).
Mallorca, Cadiz, Deportivo and Granada aren’t even worth talking about. Almeria would be there if they hadn’t just spent good money this season and nabbed Arribas!
Vallecano have Isi Palazon and Alvaro Garcia, if one of them leaves they are a relegation team. Sevilla have been destroyed by Monchi. Osasuna have managed a spectacular 7th last season but with terrible underlying numbers.
I’d say theres 5 clubs in Spain that would not be relegated if they were in the EPL. Barca, Madrid, Atletico, Sociedad and Villareal.
This is a massive decline in quality in the league. Everyone but Madrid is a selling club now. I’d be happy to see La Liga be reduced to 18 teams. The only other top 5 league with a bottom half this weak is Italy. (Atleast the french league produces great talents and are a young league).
They (and the other major Continental leagues) need to take a page out of the English playbook and spread out the TV money across the league, instead of letting Barca and Real take their enormous share.
English dominance in the sport right now is built on them having a strong base of support well down the pyramid, and lucrative rewards beyond that for simply existing in the Premier League. Continental pyramids have the same theoretical structure, but with PSG, Bayern, etc hoovering up all the attention and getting payouts to match, their competition is left in the dust and continues to decline. By contrast, English clubs get substantial revenue sharing assistance, and invest it into making their teams credible competitors domestically and in Europe.
To oversimplify further, top English teams cede a much larger percentage of the revenue “they” earn to their inter-league competition, and are rewarded with a high quality and ultimately even more lucrative final product. Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, etc do far less revenue sharing, and the top teams gorge themselves on lacklustre competition as their leagues slowly fall further and further.