So the season has ended and medals and rewards has been handed out to all the participants. There were the contenders, the pretenders, the perennial underachievers, the middlemen, and the relegation wanderers. At the end of the season, it's believed that all the teams know where they belong and understand their predicament. It is also believed that having known their problems, each team would set out to find ways and plug the holes in their team, so they can move up the ladder to the next level.
This is an article to analyze the situation report in the market so far by Spanish clubs in a bid to raise or consolidate their standards so they can compete favorably with their peers in the upcoming season. I started with the English premier league and German Bundesliga versions.
The market situation in the Spanish La Liga has been quite quiet and boring to say the least and it's making it tricky to actually segregate between the clueless ones and the outright winners in the market so far. Right now this league looks like the poorest and worst hit by tye economic downturn rocking the whole world. But we still have to do justice to the list and here it goes.
As usual, let's start with the totally clueless
For a team that just under a decade ago were a constant menace to the two big boys in the league, Atletico Madrid have been quite disappointing.
This is a team that once had Godin and Miranda in defence, Tiago and Koke and Raul Garcia in midfield and Turan and Costa in attack, all fighters and players who would bleed for the jersey. But last season what we witnessed was a complete shambles, as if they were represented by academy boys and not a Simeone machine.
Taking their performance last season into consideration, one would've expected that they will go into the market guns blazing in a bid to reclaim lost glory. But so far they've only brought in Axel Witsel for free and Samuel Lino from Gil Vicente for €6.5m.
To put things in perspective, this is a team who's best midfielder is Koke who's on the wrong side of 30, bringing in Witsel who's also above 30, when Suarez has left the club, Griezman (also above 30) is firing blanks, Joao Felix is suffering from the weight of too much expectations and is notoriously inconsistent. Their best attacking outlet being Yannick Carrasco (who's also above 30).
Then let's add the fact that their defense has been uncharacteristically leaky defense, but their only notable acquisition is a 30+ year old Witsel from Dortmund. He's a good addition quite right but not the type to propel you after such a poor season. Perhaps if this was the Italian league, then it would have made small sense, but this is la liga and untill they get serious about their business, then I don't see them beating that no4 spot next season.
The next in line is Sevilla. I remember how they started the season all foot flooring the pedal and making us believe that they'll be the serious contenders with Real Madrid as Barca and Atletico fumbled and stumbled.
But in typical fashion, they waned off as the business end of the season. They had a very sturdy defense led by Diego Carlos and Joules Kounde, but their goals dried up. So far they've let Carlos join Aston Villa while replacing him with Marcao from Galatasaray.
They've also sold a good squad player in Luuk De Jong without any replacement yet. And with the vultures circling on Kounde coupled with the fact that the like of Rakitić is aging and you see that this team is almost on threadbare when it comes to quality.
Perhaps they're only looking to balance their books by only replacing whoever leaves and making some profit at the end. The only problem in that is that, the team becomes stunted without ever growing past their current position.
This would've been the place for the third clueless team, but these teams seem to be in collusion not to even try getting better and they're still going to make it easier for the big boys to stream roll to the league again this coming season.
I thought many of these teams would take advantage of the fall of the likes of Barcelona and try to bolster their squad in order to be able to at least compete. But it looks like the economic hardship is worst felt in Spain and I'd advice the FFP reassess the sharing formula for the TV money.
For the big winners so far
The only team apart from the big boys that looks like they have a clue of a way to strengthen their team is Real Betis. Finishing in the European places last season, the club has set out to bolster their team and prepare them for their European sojourn. So far they've gotten Willian José from rivals Real Sociedad, Luiz Henrique from Fluminese and Luiz Alberto from Lazio for free. Willian Jose is already a la liga proven performer and will add more goals to the team while Luiz Alberto is a fantastic playmaker who'll take some of the creative burden off Nabil Fekir's shoulders.
To say that Jose was already in the team last season on loan, which means that he doesn't need a settling in period. All they need to do is keep these players fit and firing and I see them sustaining the form the started last season with. The biggest problem which was their achilles heels last season, which they need to solve now is the issue of squad depth. If they can sort that out with some more quality additions, then they might just overtake the like of Sevilla.
It's no more news that Barcelona are going through their worst period in recent memory. The blaugrana are finding ways to return to their glory days. And I have to say that with the paucity of funds, they've done beautiful business so far. The acquisition of Frank Kessie and Andreas Christensen for free is shrewd and effective business. They've recouped €20m from Coutinho's sale and the departure of Clement Lenglet and Gerard Pique is the beginning of the a much needed clear out to trim the wage budget.
Aubameyang has already been a hit, but if the club can finalize the Lewandowski and Raphinha deals and tie Dembele down to a new contract, then they must've done enough to keep them at the top, at least at the league level for now. But for now Xavi has been excellent both in blooding in youngsters and in clearing the deadwood while delivering results on the field.
The biggest winners so far for me is Real Madrid. Les Merengue are the most prestigious football club around with an unmatched pulling power. So far Tchouameni has joined from Monaco for a big fee with Rudiger joining for free. This means that Alaba can now return to his left back position while Rudiger partners Militao in central defense. They've also set out to trim their budget by letting the likes of Bale, Jović, Marcelo, and Isco go to create space for potential additions.
The only real issue for this team is to find an effective striker and a potential heir to take some of the workload off Benzema's shoulders. If they can sort out their Centre forward and find a consistent right winger - as it seems Asensio is leaving - then you can't bet on them not retaining the league title and possibly winning the UCL again.
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