La Liga 2013-2014

jojojo

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I couldn't resist creating this.

The fixture schedule for La Liga is being released right now, one weekend at a time, with all the club presidents etc sitting there watching. I kid you not.

The first weekend's fixtures (17th/18th August) are - Barcelona-Levante, Valencia-Málaga, Real Madrid-Betis, Sevilla-Atlético, Real Sociedad-Getafe, Valladolid- Athletic, Osasuna-Granada, Celta-Espanyol, Rayo-Elche y Almería-Villarreal. Some good matches there.

Last Liga weekend of the season will be 18th May and will be: Barcelona-Atlético, Real Madrid -Espanyol, Rayo-Getafe, Osasuna-Betis, Almería-Athletic, Sevilla-Elche, Real Sociedad-Villarreal, Valencia-Celta y Málaga-Levante.

And for those who think they only actually play two matches:
26/27 October - Barcelona Vs Real Madrid,
22/23 March - Real Madrid Vs Barcelona
 

jojojo

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This could go in the Barcelona thread, or maybe the Guardiola one, but as this thread was still on the first page I didn't go hunting.

The other thing that Guardiola said at his press conference was that, after he resigned, he asked Barca to leave him alone. That he'd gone 6000km away so he could get some rest and study English, and then German, but they didn't leave him alone. He says he'll never forgive Rosell. He thinks the board, "used Tito's illness," to damage his (Pep's) image.
 

Balu

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He was talking for a while in catalan after a journalist asked a question and so far I haven't found a translation for that question and his answer. Would be great if you have a link to what he actually said, not just one or two sentences out of context, the full answer. Those idiots at sky only had an interpreter for italian, spanish, english but no one who could speak catalan. It did sound serious though and he really said a lot.
 

jojojo

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kps88

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What does he mean by they didn't leave him alone? They kept pestering him to come back because of the Tito situation?
 

Balu

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thanks jojojo, I'll try it with google translate, hopefully the translation makes sense.
 

JaffyJoe

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I couldn't resist creating this.

The fixture schedule for La Liga is being released right now, one weekend at a time, with all the club presidents etc sitting there watching. I kid you not.

The first weekend's fixtures (17th/18th August) are - Barcelona-Levante, Valencia-Málaga, Real Madrid-Betis, Sevilla-Atlético, Real Sociedad-Getafe, Valladolid- Athletic, Osasuna-Granada, Celta-Espanyol, Rayo-Elche y Almería-Villarreal. Some good matches there.

Last Liga weekend of the season will be 18th May and will be: Barcelona-Atlético, Real Madrid -Espanyol, Rayo-Getafe, Osasuna-Betis, Almería-Athletic, Sevilla-Elche, Real Sociedad-Villarreal, Valencia-Celta y Málaga-Levante.

And for those who think they only actually play two matches:
26/27 October - Barcelona Vs Real Madrid,
22/23 March - Real Madrid Vs Barcelona

Is this where Rosell hid in the toilet??
 

FCBarca

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What does he mean by they didn't leave him alone? They kept pestering him to come back because of the Tito situation?

Pep had asked the club/board (i.e. Rosell) to not drag him into the mud or use him directly or through the media in their campaigns or in an attempt to smear, discredit etc. Sandy has been doing this since he got into office, first by rubbishing everything Laporta had done, then binning Cruyff and his honorary position within the club and eventually in pushing Pep out of the club. Now, as some of us fans knew he would, has begun to criticize Pep through the media, further discrediting anything to do with Laporta's regime.

It's basically an internal club war. Pep vs Rosell. Very bad for the club but myself and some other culés saw this coming a mile away, even before he became President. As Didier would concur, it's a disgrace and hard to gauge what sort of domino effect may ensue. I doubt Pep will continue to banter in the media but I am sure Rosell et al are reloading their media scuds to fire back - it will not end well

Amazing how short memories some 'fans' have too as many so called ones are already taking sides with the corporate whore
 

jojojo

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What does he mean by they didn't leave him alone? They kept pestering him to come back because of the Tito situation?

I would guess that it's more than just a phone call asking him how he'd feel about going back as temporary cover. He may feel that they allowed a press bandwagon to get rolling on the back of it.

In any case, I think part of his reasons for leaving was that he didn't like Rosell and his crew, so the question might just have hit a still raw nerve.
 

jojojo

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This has been the week of financial reckoning in La Liga 1 and 2. The players wages for last season had to be paid, or new arrangements made, by yesterday. Inter-club debts had to be cleared. Audited accounts and corporate statutes had to be regularised. Going into the week several failures were possible. Under the new rules, the basic punishment is relegation.

The most familiar name first then:
Deportivo - massively in debt, currently in Liga 2 (Adelante) survived by the skin of their teeth. The players agreed, an hour before the deadline, to wait for wages (some of it from 2011-12 season) again. Basically because a relegation to 2B would almost certainly have led the club into bankruptcy. Real Madrid (for free) are playing a friendly against them on the 29th August.

Even closer to the midnight deadline were Mirandes who after one season in Liga 2 (for the first time in their history) had failed to turn into a fully regulated sports company, and were still a sports club. Which might not sound like a dramatic difference but needed money (1.3m) and guarantees in place. Again, with the players and other employees taking most of the risks, the paperwork was submitted at 23:57.

Alcarcon are being audited and won't know their fate until Friday. They went through the club to company conversion last year and may have "cheated"

Guadalajara have already been relegated for irregularities in their conversion. Murcia have been given their place.
 

Skorenzy

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So, another season, another round of talent drain. As Orton and others remarked in the Soldado thread: "La liga is going to be even more weaker next year. 4 of the best players outside the top 2 have left, and the big 2 are even stronger. Falcao, Negredo, Soldado and Navas gone. Madrid have signed Isco and Illaramendi from other Spanish sides too."

It's astonishing really the amount of talent that has left La Liga (or joined the big two) over the past few seasons, incl. many I really didn't think possible just 2 years ago. Just off the top of my head...

2010- Villa* (to Barça), Silva (to Man City)
2011- Mata (to Chelsea), Agüero (to Man City)
2012- Cazorla (to Arsenal), Alba (to Barça), Javi Martínez (to Bayern)
2013- Navas & Negredo (to Man City), Isco & Illarramendi (to RM), Soldado (to Spurs), Falcao (to Monaco), Higuaín (to Napoli), Llorente (to Juventus), Thiago (to Bayern)

*now at Atlético

And ever since the bargain success that was Michu "regular" players are getting shipped off more frequently too, hell Swansea have bought half the Betis squad. Then there's the likes of Aspas, Luis Alberto, Fede Vico, Barrada, Toulalan, Callejón, Campaña, Forlín, Albiol, Gago, etc.

The one upside to all this of course means more opportunities for local home-grown talent to surface. Some youngsters (21 or under) whose development is worth keeping an eye on this season are IMO:

Alberto Moreno & Jairo Samperio (Sevilla)
Óliver Torres & J.M. Giménez* (Atlético)
Rafinha (on loan at Celta, from Barça)
Carles Gil (on loan at Elche, from Valencia)
Álvaro Vadillo (Betis)
Aymeric Laporte (Athletic)
Rubén Pardo (Real Sociedad)
Sergi Roberto (FC Barcelona)
Paco Alcácer & Juan Bernat (Valencia)
Jesé (Real Madrid)

*imported, had a great U20 WC with Uruguay

And then there's the ones who have already built a bit of a rep last season who need to strive towards becoming regulars: Koke (already a starter), Carvajal (shouldn't be a problem), Morata (first in line for the FW spot behind Benzema at the moment), Tello (depends on what Martino wants from his wingers, but given the addition of Neymar seems less likely that he'll have much outside of a role as sub), Canales (if he can remain injury free), Kondogbia (starter, unless he leaves), etc.


Re: the league's quality, Málaga are back to looking slightly better than a relegation scrapper again, Valencia are supposedly bringing in Postiga to replace Soldado (lol), Betis have lost a lot of players (incl. Cañas and Beñat but they did bring in the impressive Verdú from Espanyol), Rayo Vallecano don't even look the same team anymore. On the other hand, Real Sociedad have impressively been able to keep their core together (save for Illarra), their task now is to qualify for the CL proper, which will be incredibly hard considering they're unseeded. Granada have made some interesting acquisitions: Piti (Rayo's top scorer from midfield last season with 18 goals, out-Michu'ing Michu), Riki and Manuel Iturra (looked handy in the CL for Málaga last season). Pozzo-owned clubs usually make astute signings, and with that in mind they also brought in some young South American defenders, one of whom recently got his first call-up to the Brazil NT.

Sevilla actually look to me the most improved club (outside of the big two) in terms of signings so far, together with Atlético (getting another loan out of Courtois and replacing Falcao with Villa and Leo Baptistão seems good business on the face of it, but I don't think they'll do as well as last year). Sevilla meanwhile have replaced Navas with Marin (on loan from Chelsea) and Jairo Samperio (Racing youth product); and brought in Kevin Gameiro (PSG) and Carlos Bacca (player of the year and top scorer in the Belgian league last season). If they can keep Kondogbia they should definitely do better than the meagre 9th place they finished in last season (although it did get them into Europe funnily enough, thanks to Málaga and Rayo's financial turmoil).

What looked like a step in the right direction, with Atléti's success last season (breaking the streak whilst winning the Copa, finishing 3rd "only" 9 points below RM and having been in 2nd spot for the majority of the season (24 jornadas); Málaga's success in Europe and Real Sociedad playing probably the best football in Spain last season and qualifying for the CL play-offs, is now looking like just one final hurrah.
 

Ekeke

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Every season people post concerns about la liga. Then Man City buy 2 players from an average la liga team for over £45 million. They didn't even sign their best player!

The quality will be there again, someone will surprise you and challenge Atletico for 3rd. Another squad with some decent players will underperform like Sevilla usually do and Atletico had done before last season. And so on
 

Skorenzy

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Every season people post concerns about la liga. Then Man City buy 2 players from an average la liga team for over £45 million. They didn't even sign their best player!

The quality will be there again, someone will surprise you and challenge Atletico for 3rd. Another squad with some decent players will underperform like Sevilla usually do and Atletico had done before last season. And so on

Of course you're right, but you have to admit that this season it's been really bad for established players. Don't know how you can call Negredo and Navas "average" but okay. In one summer they've lost #5, #6, #7 and #8 of the active top scorers of La Liga (all except Llorente with over 100 league goals). #4 is Raúl freaking Tamudo who is already 35 years old, #3 (CR) will probably stay but even then there are rumours and #2 (Villa) was this close to joining the PL contingent (well maybe not, but I doubt we'll ever fully know). Navas had close to 400 apps for Sevilla, the likes of Iago Aspas and Michu barely completed one season in La Liga before being plucked away, 24/25-year olds (Barrada, Forlín) are being sold to Middle Eastern clubs. RM are hoarding domestic talent again. La Liga even fails when it comes to sugar daddies, Málaga went down the shitter over night after some moderate success and Racing Santander dropped two divisions in two years :houllier:.

Real Sociedad stand a reasonable chance of not even reaching the CL proper. I hope they do though and I hope they can maintain what they did last season, but there's no telling with a new manager (don't know much about Arrasate except that he was promoted thru the ranks) and as of yet no reinforcements other than Seferovic from Fiorentina.
 

Ekeke

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Of course you're right, but you have to admit that this season it's been really bad for established players. Don't know how you can call Negredo and Navas "average" but okay. In one summer they've lost #5, #6, #7 and #8 of the active top scorers of La Liga (all except Llorente with over 100 league goals). #4 is Raúl freaking Tamudo who is already 35 years old, #3 (CR) will probably stay but even then there are rumours and #2 (Villa) was this close to joining the PL contingent (well maybe not, but I doubt we'll ever fully know). Navas had close to 400 apps for Sevilla, the likes of Iago Aspas and Michu barely completed one season in La Liga before being plucked away, 24/25-year olds (Barrada, Forlín) are being sold to Middle Eastern clubs. RM are hoarding domestic talent again. La Liga even fails when it comes to sugar daddies, Málaga went down the shitter over night after some moderate success and Racing Santander dropped two divisions in two years :houllier:.

Real Sociedad stand a reasonable chance of not even reaching the CL proper. I hope they do though and I hope they can maintain what they did last season, but there's no telling with a new manager (don't know much about Arrasate except that he was promoted thru the ranks) and as of yet no reinforcements other than Seferovic from Fiorentina.
They werent the best players at a club that finished 9th and season after season have underperformed. I didnt call them average, but Sevilla are an average side because they cant seem to live up to expectations. And Rakitic is imo their best player and outperformed Negredo. He was miles better than Navas
 

SuecoGitano

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a bit early for all these predictions etc since there are around 4 weeks left of transfer time, however, I do agree that the trend of talent leaving la Liga has accelerated alarmingly this summer. Its such a shame.

The tv rights issue is a problem. It is very easy to criticise the big two for not sharing a greater part of the money (I agree they should), however, it is not as simple as that imo. If the big two shared as much in % as is done in PL this would ensure a more equal competition within la Liga in a few seasons. On the other hand, the big two would loose competitiveness vs e.g. the large teams in the PL. The total amount of money to split between the teams in la Liga is quite a bit lower than in the PL. The big two have also built up a cost structure in their clubs which could not take such a significant decrease in income without having a fairly big impact on their teams. IT could be argues that the big two mainly play to win the CL..No matter what, it needs to be solved since it is killing La Liga slowly.

I will come with my predictions later on once the teams are complete.
 

jojojo

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a bit early for all these predictions etc since there are around 4 weeks left of transfer time, however, I do agree that the trend of talent leaving la Liga has accelerated alarmingly this summer. Its such a shame.

The tv rights issue is a problem. It is very easy to criticise the big two for not sharing a greater part of the money (I agree they should), however, it is not as simple as that imo. If the big two shared as much in % as is done in PL this would ensure a more equal competition within la Liga in a few seasons. On the other hand, the big two would loose competitiveness vs e.g. the large teams in the PL. The total amount of money to split between the teams in la Liga is quite a bit lower than in the PL. The big two have also built up a cost structure in their clubs which could not take such a significant decrease in income without having a fairly big impact on their teams. IT could be argues that the big two mainly play to win the CL..No matter what, it needs to be solved since it is killing La Liga slowly.

I will come with my predictions later on once the teams are complete.

Yes, La Liga's pot is that much smaller but the big two pull about 50m more from that smaller pot than any other team in Europe. The big two take about 120m each out of the 600m available. Share that 600m out equally and it's about 30m per club.

In the PL you're looking at the top club getting about 60m and the bottom one about 40m. In Spain a similar split would be more like 35m / 20m. Would it cure La Liga's problems? Valencia and Atletico would also lose out and their debt issues are already severe. It would certainly be a different Liga though the big two would still be the big two financially as well as organizationally.

TV rights in general favour the big clubs, European football also attracts good crowds and good prize money. United might only get 60m for the PL but they can get a similar amount from the CL TV money. Barca and Madrid in 2011 each earned around 180m in total from the TV, they're also in the top 3 (or some years 4) in match day revenues in Europe. They are huge clubs.

Share out the Liga TV money and they'll still be huge, and a few more Liga clubs may survive. What it won't do is rescue clubs like Atletico and Valencia from having to sell their stars. Take 80m from Madrid and they'll still have the highest revenue in world football - what they won't have is the "let's bid a record price for Bale" cash.
 

jojojo

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From the BBC so all times are UK

Today's games
Real Sociedad 2-0 Getafe
Valladolid 1-2 Athletic Bilbao
Valencia v Malaga 22:00

Sunday 18th August 2013
Barcelona v Levante 18:00
Osasuna v Granada 20:00
Real Madrid v Real Betis 20:00
Sevilla v Atl Madrid 22:00

Monday 19th August 2013
Rayo Vallecano v Elche 19:00
Almeria v Villarreal 21:00
Celta de Vigo v Espanyol 21:00

 

Ronaldo's Mum Eh?

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I wanted to see Neymar start but I guess he's still struggling with the weight loss issues. Can't wait to see the Madrid game as well.
 

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Fabregas starting...hope he spends most of the season on the bench!

Unless he does a U-turn and joins us :D
 

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3-0. The passing and movement is so good that it is actually annoying me that people can be this good.
 

FCBarca

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3-0. The passing and movement is so good that it is actually annoying me that people can be this good.

They have played better & better under Tata, he's proving to be a smart choice in the early goings - still a long ways to go in terms of seeing what he'll ultimately bring to this collection of talent but I like what I see so far

Really happy Pedro shot there rather than square to Messi, another good sign
 

bosnian_red

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The difference in quality on the ball is huge between Barca and pretty much every other team in the world. All of them have pretty much perfect first touches and that let's them have this quick passing and make it look so simple.