Real Madrid

It’ll be interesting to see how the future of La Liga plays out. Every time I see highlights of games there are so many empty stadiums and they have issues with TV rights. Barca are seemingly on the edge of oblivion every season and somehow Real seem to be well run which is a sign of the apocalypse.

The worrying thing for La Liga has been the lack of quality in the pool of Spanish players. Obviously that golden generation is difficult to live up to, but Portugal seem to have overtaken them on the talent pool front in recent years. Could just be a bit of a lull for now, don’t know enough about the youth programmes to know if it’s something more systemic. If I were to speculate on that it would be that a number of other countries have improved technical levels but combined it well with athleticism, whereas Spain are possibly missing the latter a little bit.

comment by Kobbie The King Mainoo (U10026)
posted 20 minutes ago
The worrying thing for La Liga has been the lack of quality in the pool of Spanish players. Obviously that golden generation is difficult to live up to, but Portugal seem to have overtaken them on the talent pool front in recent years. Could just be a bit of a lull for now, don’t know enough about the youth programmes to know if it’s something more systemic. If I were to speculate on that it would be that a number of other countries have improved technical levels but combined it well with athleticism, whereas Spain are possibly missing the latter a little bit.
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The solution is staring us in the face - La Liga and the Portuguese leagues should merge. If only to see the look on Rosso’s face.

Spain's youth teams are still doing well, albeit not at the level of a decade ago. Bar the odd hiccup that anyone else is prone to, they do still tend to make the finals rounds in European championships. The impression though is that other nations have gotten their acts together. Most semis will contain at least two or three of Germany, Netherlands, France, Portugal, England, Spain and increasingly Italy again.

It seems the biggest difficulty is in making the final step up to the elite.

Robb, here are La Liga's attendance figures for the season: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/laliga/besucherzahlen/wettbewerb/ES1/saison_id/2022/plus/1
There are two or three that historically have typically low attendances, partly because they play in oversized stadiums, but more than half the league averages above 80% capacity, and that's not counting Madrid and Villarreal who have been operating on reduced capacity due to ongoing stadium redevelopments.

What issues concerning TV rights?

comment by manutd1982 (U6633)
posted 8 hours, 33 minutes ago
Benzema, Hazard and Asensio have all left, they're definitely gonna spend something this summer in attack, they have also bought Endrick.

One thing I read though is that they have a limit on the number of non EU players they can and they've already bought 2 of them this year.
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According to transfermarkt, Endrick doesn't join until next summer.

comment by LordDowlias (U3236)
posted 8 hours, 30 minutes ago
Bellingham will be £100M+ and that should be it really, unless they sign any freebies or youngsters.

They are in a similar position to Barca, so if they go and spend another £100M+ on Harry Kane then FFP should be looking at them, although we all know they wont.
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They can't possibly be in the same position when they've made a profit on their transfers over the last few years.

comment by Melbourne Red (U5417)
posted 3 hours, 10 minutes ago
comment by LordDowlias (U3236)
posted 8 hours, 30 minutes ago
Bellingham will be £100M+ and that should be it really, unless they sign any freebies or youngsters.

They are in a similar position to Barca, so if they go and spend another £100M+ on Harry Kane then FFP should be looking at them, although we all know they wont.
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They can't possibly be in the same position when they've made a profit on their transfers over the last few years.
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Of course they're not. It's horrendously misinformed bullsheet.

comment by it'sonlyagame (U6426)
posted 6 hours, 7 minutes ago
Spain's youth teams are still doing well, albeit not at the level of a decade ago. Bar the odd hiccup that anyone else is prone to, they do still tend to make the finals rounds in European championships. The impression though is that other nations have gotten their acts together. Most semis will contain at least two or three of Germany, Netherlands, France, Portugal, England, Spain and increasingly Italy again.

It seems the biggest difficulty is in making the final step up to the elite.

Robb, here are La Liga's attendance figures for the season: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/laliga/besucherzahlen/wettbewerb/ES1/saison_id/2022/plus/1
There are two or three that historically have typically low attendances, partly because they play in oversized stadiums, but more than half the league averages above 80% capacity, and that's not counting Madrid and Villarreal who have been operating on reduced capacity due to ongoing stadium redevelopments.

What issues concerning TV rights?
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Sorry IOAG, just saw this. I looked into it and I think in all honesty I must have used a lazy generalisation and thought something I heard ages ago about the Spanish FA struggling to find anyone to buy the TV rights but it seems they have a fairly big deal with DAZN 👍

Ps, thanks for the 3 points that kept Valencia up 🙌

It seems the biggest difficulty is in making the final step up to the elite.
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Yeah that’s more what I was referring to. In addition to my earlier point, I wonder if the big shift among smaller La Liga sides towards a more defensive style of football is impacting their development as well.

No worries, Robb.

Daz, your suggestions are likely to play a part. As tends to be the case, it's probably due to a variety of factors coming together, just as you need others to coincide in order to prosper.