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.