Hay Liga? All Things España 2024-25

rguilmar

rguilmar

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Ruben Baraja is out at Valencia. He lasted a lot longer than many expected, but it was past time for him to go. Valencia finished mid table last season thanks to significantly outperforming their advanced metrics. Their luck ran out and this season they are very much in a relegation fight.

Barca are once again having trouble registering Dani Olmo and have until the end of the calendar year to find a solution. He was registered because Christenson had gotten injured, and the club could use an emergency clause to use his salary on Olmo. That clause is set to expire. I imagine it gets done somehow, but clubs might be circling in case Barca drop the ball.

It looks like Real Madrid are going to try to bring Rafa Marin back to the club. He’s the CB they sold to Napoli over the summer. I thought it was short sighted given their lack of depth at the position. He’s a La Liga caliber CB, not a Real Madrid level starter, but those guys are useful to a club like Madrid. Apparently they included a buy back clause in the sale. I wonder if the club thinks that Raul Asensio is outperforming his talent at the moment and are preparing to sell him in the summer. He wasn’t really considered a locked in starter for their B team but injuries to two other highly rated CB prospects propelled him to the big club. He’s looked good, but I can see his aggressive tendencies coming back to bite him.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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The Segunda is at the halfway point minus one Levante-Depor clash that was postponed due to the floods in Valencia. Racing have gone full Barca and coughed up their sizeable lead, falling to third. Almería top the table and are looking good. They're pretty much the definition of “nondescript”. Second place is Mirandes who have never been in La Liga before. They’ve built a reputation as a good loan team for bigger clubs, like J-Go a year ago for USMNT fans. it would be fun if they made it up to La Liga. There are a bunch of admirable clubs in the hunt- Oviedo, Huesca (who have a rep as giant killers), Sporting, Malaga, Zaragoza, Castellón and so on.

At the other end of the table, Tenerife are all but done at this point. They were on the verge of promotion to La Liga a few years ago, and now they’re most likely headed out of the fully professional ranks, which can tough on an island team, especially down in the Canaries. Both Cadiz and Deportivo La Coruña are in the thick of the relegation fight too. Depor in particular have played better than their record indicates, but I’m hoping both clubs survive.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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The Dani Olmo situation continues

View: https://twitter.com/fabrizioromano/status/1872601913994416241?s=46&t=XvGOrrWIyL-5CHVVL_0JYQ


Most believe that the Barcelona efforts in court are not designed to actually win but to stall so that a solution can be found. Barca were counting on a Nike deal that hasn’t been signed yet to make the numbers work. I don’t know how much the “delays” in getting the Nou Camp Nou done are impacting things.

Should Barcelona not be able to register Olmo by Tuesday, he will be able to sign with any team in the world on a free transfer. I believe Barca are still on the hook for his entire salary as well.

Pau Victor, a rotation attacking player, is also involved but might be eligible to be loaned to Barca B in a worst case scenario. He’s made 17 appearances so far this season, so he’s a useful piece.

The players were registered under a provision that allows clubs to use salary slots for players with long term injuries (Christenson and Araujo in these cases) to pay replacements, but it only applies for the current calendar year.

My favorite part of the story is that the basis for Barcelona’s case in court is that the club considers the La Liga board in charge of this issue to be “incompetent”. I do agree that someone is incompetent. I fully expect the club to be successful in the same way that the super wealthy are always successful. They’ll just keep filing lawsuits to drag it out.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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The good folks over at Opta always have an interesting stat. Even I found the fact that 4 of the top five leading clubs in aerial duels won are in La Liga surprising. Real Sociedad is the shocker here. Mallorca and Osasuna play an almost old school English style, lots of flick on headers and bombing the ball into the box. Getafe are a club who want to muck up a game and steal a winner a set piece. Real Sociedad are more associated with slick passing.

View: https://twitter.com/optajose/status/1873384966203257245?s=46&t=XvGOrrWIyL-5CHVVL_0JYQ


It looks like Barca have found another lever to pull to get Olmo and Victor registered. They sold the right to operate their club boxes at the Nou Camp for €100 million. Fans on Twitter/X are hailing Laporta as a hero, but to me it’s another example of mortgaging future income to pay for yesterday’s mistakes. This is the problem with the member owned clubs. By the time the negative impacts of LaPorta’s decisions are felt, he’ll be long gone and someone else will have to deal with it.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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I was wrong, Barca didn’t get any extension and Dani Olmo, along with Pau Victor, is no longer registered by La Liga. Neither player can represent the club in any competition. The club have been playing loose with finances for a while now and it came back to bite them in the most embarrassing way. Olmo’s lawyers foresaw these issues when they agreed to a contract and included a clause that allows him to leave the club and Barca would have to pay his entire contract up front (as in everything owed to him until 2030). So far, the player has said his dream is to play at Barcelona and that he will wait it out. However, he stands to make many more millions of Euros by moving on. I’m unsure what Laporta, Deco, and company have shown that proves that they can control themselves when a shiny new toy is on the market this summer and the club are back in the exact same situation. I know Flick likes the player, but he was a luxury buy at the time by a club who could not afford luxury buys. They didn’t need him but wanted to buy a Spain Euro hero to get some of the headlines from Real Madrid. What a mess.

Anyways, full Sid Lowe piece below. He even says that Olmo can’t represent Spain while being unregistered but that is the only time I’ve seen that claim.

View: https://twitter.com/sidlowe/status/1875261022803542252?s=46&t=XvGOrrWIyL-5CHVVL_0JYQ
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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Pontevedra knocked out Mallorca 3-0 in the third round of the Copa. They had already taken down Villarreal. We have a Cinderella!
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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Wild one at Mestalla where Real Madrid came back to beat Valencia. Emotions were hot all over. This was the scene of the most notorious of racist abuses hurled at Vini Jr. a couple of years ago. Vini lost his mind getting a red card, and Rudiger prevented it from being worse. There were plenty of “tonto” (dummy) chants, but as far as I could tell nothing racist (RM accounts are claiming the chants were “mono”- monkey- but it sounded like tonto to me though nothing would surprise me). Valencia fans protested the ownership of Peter Lim- perhaps the worst owner in sports- by not entering the stadium until the 20th minute. Some ultras refused to attend at all. Real Madrid were honored before the game because of their kind efforts for the Valencia region after the devastating floods that caused this game to be postponed and played today. Hugo Duro (world class pain the ass to play against) put Valencia ahead, Modric got the equalizer after Vini’s red, and Bellingham won it in the 95th minute.
 
Royal Reader

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rguilmar said:
Wild one at Mestalla where Real Madrid came back to beat Valencia. Emotions were hot all over. This was the scene of the most notorious of racist abuses hurled at Vini Jr. a couple of years ago. Vini lost his mind getting a red card, and Rudiger prevented it from being worse. There were plenty of “tonto” (dummy) chants, but as far as I could tell nothing racist (RM accounts are claiming the chants were “mono”- monkey- but it sounded like tonto to me though nothing would surprise me). Valencia fans protested the ownership of Peter Lim- perhaps the worst owner in sports- by not entering the stadium until the 20th minute. Some ultras refused to attend at all. Real Madrid were honored before the game because of their kind efforts for the Valencia region after the devastating floods that caused this game to be postponed and played today. Hugo Duro (world class pain the ass to play against) put Valencia ahead, Modric got the equalizer after Vini’s red, and Bellingham won it in the 95th minute.
Click to expand...
That write up doesn't even include Bellingham's missed pen, Mbappé's disallowed goal, nor Valencia hitting the inside of the post with seconds left. Truly crazy game.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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Royal Reader said:
That write up doesn't even include Bellingham's missed pen, Mbappé's disallowed goal, nor Valencia hitting the inside of the post with seconds left. Truly crazy game.
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Honestly, the game was so wild that I completely forgot about the penalty.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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It was a Copa weekend with round of 32 action. Pontevedra wasn’t the only club to score an upset. Almería hammered rival Sevilla 4-1, Elche crushed Las Palmas 4-0, and tiny Ourense (struggling in the 3rd tier) knocked out Valladolid. Defending champs Athletic Club snuck through on penalties and Celta barely beat ten man Racing Santander. Minnows Deportiva Minera take on mighty Real Madrid in their 2,000 person stadium tomorrow and Eldense host Valencia on Tuesday.

Even if the favorites win those two games, there will be 4 non-La Liga clubs in the sweet sixteen, along with 5 La Liga clubs who have no trophies (Rayo, Leganés, Getafe, Osasuna, Celta). Plenty to root for. Except for Getafe.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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rguilmar said:
I was wrong, Barca didn’t get any extension and Dani Olmo, along with Pau Victor, is no longer registered by La Liga. Neither player can represent the club in any competition. The club have been playing loose with finances for a while now and it came back to bite them in the most embarrassing way. Olmo’s lawyers foresaw these issues when they agreed to a contract and included a clause that allows him to leave the club and Barca would have to pay his entire contract up front (as in everything owed to him until 2030). So far, the player has said his dream is to play at Barcelona and that he will wait it out. However, he stands to make many more millions of Euros by moving on. I’m unsure what Laporta, Deco, and company have shown that proves that they can control themselves when a shiny new toy is on the market this summer and the club are back in the exact same situation. I know Flick likes the player, but he was a luxury buy at the time by a club who could not afford luxury buys. They didn’t need him but wanted to buy a Spain Euro hero to get some of the headlines from Real Madrid. What a mess.

Anyways, full Sid Lowe piece below. He even says that Olmo can’t represent Spain while being unregistered but that is the only time I’ve seen that claim.

View: https://twitter.com/sidlowe/status/1875261022803542252?s=46&t=XvGOrrWIyL-5CHVVL_0JYQ
Click to expand...
In a shocking twist, maybe I was right after all. A judge is allowing Olmo and Victor to be available while the courts consider the case. The outcome won’t matter one bit in this case except to establish precedent. Barca will just drag it out until the summer if they can when it won’t even matter anymore.

View: https://twitter.com/fabrizioromano/status/1877048832065745270?s=46&t=XvGOrrWIyL-5CHVVL_0JYQ
 
bosox4283

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First, I want to thank you for your activity here -- it's a great source of information, and it's fun to have a place where someone else cares about the La Liga as much (if not more!) than I do. I usually get blank stares when I bring up Atletico!

It is fun to see that Ourense and Pontevedra have games that they may be able to win and then get a bigger club in the next round. I hope that they both get the win and advance.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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Work on the Nou Mestalla has finally resumed. It has been sitting unfinished for over 15 years.

View: https://twitter.com/valenciacf/status/1877627994144923941?s=46&t=XvGOrrWIyL-5CHVVL_0JYQ


I’ll always be partial to Mestalla and its extremely steep stands. It felt legitimately dangerous to mountain climb the stairs up to the upper sections of the stadium. It is a pretty barebones complex though compared to the rest of stadiums in Spain with barely any amenities at all. I’m sure fans are hoping that the first games played there aren’t in the Segunda.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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Barca started well in the Supercopa final, then Mbappe hit them on the counter. 1-0 Real Madrid just a few minutes in.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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Camavinga should be off. Sitting on a yellow and he manhandled Yamal making no effort to play the ball.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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There’s only one team in this

4-1 Barca at the half. Valverde is giving a great effort for Real Madrid. The rest of the team looks like ass.
 
rguilmar

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Pesky Pole said:
i know they beat them soundly earlier this year but this is crazy. Not that anyone feels bad for Real Madrid.
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I would think that Real Madrid have been built to most effectively dismantle Flick’s Barca- plenty of speed, more than willing to sit back and counter- but it’s been the total opposite so far in their two encounters.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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Pesky Pole said:
It sorta disintegrated. I also thought it was “game on” but Barca seems back in enough control.
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Yeah, the game just fizzled after the red. Good win for Barca, and bodes well for the rest of the La Liga and for all of us “Anybody but Real Madrid” fans out there.
 
Zososoxfan

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I'm still glowing at the fact that Madrid blew up a very well-built squad to shoehorn an extremely expensive Mbappe in. That's the Madrid-Perez Barca-La Liga need.

Flick needs a lot of respect put on his name. Yamal blowing up is mostly to his credit, but integrating Casado and Martinez, and revitalizing Raph, Pedri, and the rest of the squad is a huge plus on his resume.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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SocrManiac said:
It feels like the Yankees signing A-Rod. Let's hope the resulting drought is similar.
Click to expand...
It’s more like going for A-Rod while neglecting a real need at SP. They went into the season needing a CB and ended up with none. Nacho moved on, Rafa Marin was sold, they missed out on Leny Yoro, and their top two CB in La Fábrica got hurt. Awful roster building by Perez who, up till that point, had been shockingly poised and well thought out.


Zososoxfan said:
I'm still glowing at the fact that Madrid blew up a very well-built squad to shoehorn an extremely expensive Mbappe in. That's the Madrid-Perez Barca-La Liga need.

Flick needs a lot of respect put on his name. Yamal blowing up is mostly to his credit, but integrating Casado and Martinez, and revitalizing Raph, Pedri, and the rest of the squad is a huge plus on his resume.
Click to expand...
That Pedri, Gavi, Casado midfield is fun to watch. I don’t think Casado gets the recognition he deserves, but he’s been fantastic. It was comical watching him run alongside relative giants like Bellingham.
 
rguilmar

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La Liga’s homegrown youth revolution is getting noticed. Opta’s Jamie Kemp wrote this article about La Liga’s reliance on development and younger players. La Liga has far and away the most minutes going to U-23 homegrown players. Obviously there are financial benefits to clubs for developing their own players, and this became a necessity in the FFP and post-Covid world. Academies like La Masia, La Fábrica, Tajonar, Lezama, Mareo and so on are well known by now, but pretty much every academy is churning out talent. Clubs need more and more talented youngsters to compete.

Just over 17% of all minutes played in La Liga this term have been done so by Spaniards aged 23 or under – the biggest share in a single season this century. In terms of appearances, we’re now closer than ever before in that timeframe to a fifth of all La Liga appearances being made by a Spanish national aged 23 or younger (18.9%).

This is helping lead the re-emergence of La Roja as a world power.

The bad news for the rest is that Spain are back on top. The worse news is that their resources, and capacity for staying power, are looking as plentiful as ever, courtesy of a youthful wave sweeping across the country’s top flight.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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rguilmar

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Getafe had the most Getafe win possibly ever. They knocked out 4th tier Pontevedra by scoring in the second minute then going full bunker the rest of the way. Pontevedra had 84% of the possession while Getafe had 100% of the two red cards.

Still better than watching Betis get mauled by Barca. I don’t want to talk about it, Zoso.

The Copa is down to all La Liga teams with Valencia (beating 3rd tier Ourense), Leganés (knocking out Almería), and Atleti (crushing Elche) all advancing. Tomorrow has three good looking games, all clubs from La Liga. Real Madrid host Celta, Real Sociedad host Rayo, and the big one is Athletic Club hosting Osasuna in a Basque Derby. IIRC Osasuna won in Bilbao during their magical run to the final a couple of years ago. If the three home teams win, RFEF should just let me hand pick the quarterfinal matchups (3 huge derbies and a coastal Mediterranean clash).
 
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Quite a fun Basque derby today. Hope the Osasuna keeper is alright.

But damn, where was the VAR review on the Celta pen claim?
 
rguilmar

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I’m kinda ready to talk about Barca 5 Betis 1. Note that Betis goal was scored by on loan Barca striker Vítor Roque. I’ll basically go over Barca’s attack based on the incredibly scientific study of how tight I clenched my butt cheeks when they had the ball in non-threatening situations.

Thoroughly unclenched:
Gerard Martin- I wish he kept the ball all game long. I’m a little surprised that Barca don’t recall Alex Valle instead of loaning him again.
Mostly unclenched:
FDJ, Dani Olmo- to be fair FDJ is just getting back from injury. Towards the end of the game, he was left almost unpressured and he picked a pass often when that happened. But under pressure when it was still a game, he didn’t concern me. Olmo was playing as a false nine, and he was dangerous but that was almost always created by someone else.
Mostly clenched:
Raphinha, Kounde- they’re both really good and created quite a bit. Kounde had that one pretty goal and would have had a second if he clipped his toenails or wore boots .5 sizes smaller. Raph is terrifying when he gets going downhill. I think he’s often the recipient of others’ creativity but he can do the business on his own
Totally clenched:
Gavi, Pedri- when they get the ball, you have no clue where it’s going, but you know you’re in trouble. They can both pick a pass or score (appreciate Gavi holding back on celebrating against his boyhood club). Gavi has the bonus of creating a chance when the opponent has the ball by being so aggressive.
Uncategorized:
Lamine- he’s too good. Every time he had the ball I was convinced Barca would score. But he’s so entertaining that I wanted to see him with the ball. The reverse elástico nutmeg pass to Kounde in the box was just insane. I thought Perrault had been having an underrated season so far, but in the words of Ray Hudson, the kid just emasculated him.
 
rguilmar

rguilmar

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sdiaz1 said:
Quite a fun Basque derby today. Hope the Osasuna keeper is alright.

But damn, where was the VAR review on the Celta pen claim?
Click to expand...
You weren’t kidding, great game in Bilbao. Lots of great play, several top notch goals. Maybe Osasuna are poised for another run.

They’d probably love a crack at Real Madrid, especially at El Sadar.
 
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