Has Barcelona, ​​Sevilla, Real Sociedad in Europe affected the decline of La Liga?

By 9pm on Thursday night, the Princess Leia hologram had arrived in the dressing room at Los Carmenes, and another on his way to Salzburg. Help me, Villarreal and Granada, you are my only hope.

Spain had become sad and a little hopeless, in need of rescue. A few minutes earlier, Manchester United had scored their fourth goal against Real Sociedad in Turin. In three European matches over three days, La Liga teams had conceded eleven goals, and it could be even worse. PSG had outscored Barcelona and Dortmund had won three against Sevilla in the Champions League; now, United had got four against him and Real in the Europa League. Spanish football was hit hard, needing something to hold on to.

Granada and Villarreal gave it up, some hope. At Los Carmenes, Yangel Herrera and Robert Kenedy scored the goals that beat Napoli 2-0. At the Red Bull Arena, Paco Alcácer and Fer Nino saw off Salzburg with the same score. Maybe doom was to come after all. Next week, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid will face Atalanta and Chelsea respectively – after all, things may look very different. (Or they could look worse.) After the second leg of those games they could, too – though only Sevilla, beaten 3-2 by Dortmund, who have a real fair to reverse the result.

Before they started in those games, things could hardly have been worse. Mainly because those blows didn’t feel like one bad night, or two, or even three. They felt that place as an inaccessible reality rather than an accident.

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After Barcelona were beaten 4-1 by Kylian Mbappe and PSG, Ronald Koeman admitted that they were against “truth.” That was not to say that have been well enough, that is them son that’s not good enough. They were beaten just twice this year at home, but now they have been beaten. Take a look at the last few years and this was very familiar too: they had conceded three at Juventus (twice), three as AS Roma, four at PSG, four at Liverpool, eight against Bayern Munich in Lisbon, and now four at home against PSG.

And here ‘s the thing: and it wasn’t just them, or so many in Spain that said. Sevilla were next, losing 3-2 at the Sanchez Pizjuan to Dortmund on Wednesday night. The winning side left each of their last nine games, conceding just once, three in the first half on their own. The debates, the depression, the doom prophets came. “It’s over,” wrote one columnist in Marca, “lost hegemony.” Listen to the radio, and it was as if they were tearing it up. Real Sociedad followed, and so did death. Spanish football is over.

Otherwise, it was not. Granada and Villarreal helped put all of this in perspective, a bit of calm put in place and a little bit of hope as well. The absence of the warning was revealed. And yet, while he had been adding to the truth, a debate for a quick forget about tomorrow, there is no time for patience yet less of a plan, there is little more to it than just the melodrama which goes with a few missing games.

Even what made those games special, not movement, felt more lasting somehow. Personality put it off, so often. On Tuesday, it had been Mbappe; on Wednesday, it was Haaland. “Another animal on the loom,” as one headline put it. They had torn into Barcelona and Sevilla, panicking at every turn. Inspired, between them they got five and helped one of the seven goals that their Spanish opponents had admitted.

Looking at Haaland in particular, he was starting to feel so scared of him, as he seemed to be warming up as some paradigm shift prototype tested him on scary topics, that sudden rise affecting everything around him. When two good players go – and are defended so badly – it can happen. When Bruno Fernandes is like this for Man United, it can happen too.

There was something to be said for a study of the three blows suffered by Spanish clubs that marked the way they had suffered – at the hands of straight, straight athletic teams. Something in there was the idea that PSG, Dortmund and Man United were just too quick; not only did they play better football, they played different football, led by men (certainly in the case of Mbappe and Haaland) which is something else.

“They were like planes,” Real Sociedad manager Imanol Alguacil said. Sevilla worked like they had never seen anything like this and they probably hadn’t; they probably won’t be on the weekend, anyway.

But it’s not as if Spanish teams are torn apart by players who have never done this to anyone else, and will never do it again. Instead, they may have just won out with three of the seven or eight best players in the world and the top two – at least, should Fernandes be made more? – or at least the two men who are expected to be the best.

And that was the most inevitable story this week, no matter where you were: a sense of a new era breaking out, new colossuses emerging to walk through, getting the upper hand on her -everything. “Today is the future”, as Barcelona vice-captain Andoni Zubizarreta put it. Mbappe and Haaland. More to the point: Mbappe no Haaland? Already there is a kind of haste to create conflict, a desire to share, to serve a good face – to – and you will see where this is going – find a new Messi and Ronaldo.

Both played in Spain, making it the center of the football world. Mbappe and Haaland, you may have noticed, no. There was more to nostalgia here as they thought of a new generation. A bit of despair, too, in the inevitable response to what they did this week.

“Florentino, sign up!” The headline ran in front of AS. As he slammed Barcelona to the sword, the Real Madrid president had been waiting on Twitter. In Catalonia, meanwhile, presidential elections were being marked as potential promises. The question was getting asked – and it really was everywhere – yes: who would you sign, Mbappe or Haaland?

What about both? What about one or the other?

All of this brings this back to that feeling of loss. There is something inevitable about Mbappe and Haaland being linked to Madrid and / or Barcelona. It’s not new – in Mbappe’s case, Madrid has been part of his career plan, and has been a part of them, for a long time. Both are clearly open to the idea of ​​movement, preparing paths that may be available elsewhere. In Haaland’s case, that’s proof. But while it is inevitable to bind them, they do not go to Spain anymore. Still the biggest clubs in the world, they may not be the best. And of course not the richest in terms of money.

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Currently, Madrid and Barcelona cannot pay for Haaland or Mbappe. They will always be the biggest names, but at the moment, they may not be the most attractive destinations in the world either. And not the league in which they play. The future is uncertain.

Mbappe and Haaland it was possible end of this. Of course, somehow, despite all the evidence, it is still hard to imagine that neither will one day appear in La Liga. But it’s not just the big two – although you may, as always, be forgiven for thinking that it is – it is everything, and which is why it’s not just this week’s results that bring pessimism. It’s something deeper.

There’s a reason Madrid and Barcelona are among the surest to push through a European Super League. The reason why the La Liga president continues to attack City and PSG – not just because he thinks he is right, but because he is concerned about their power. The power of the Premier League, too. Much has improved in Spain, but the pandemic hit hard and the financial muscle of English football was already threatening to see a leak. And their charms are only economical, although that is the basis of it all.

The bottom line? There are reasons why Spain ‘s dominance over the past decade will feel unlikely to be repeated over the next one.

Write a list of the top 10 male players in the world: how many play in La Liga? Fewer of them than once did. And it’s not just at the top; over the last few years, the midfielders have also gone, the next generation, the ones who would help Spain’s “other” clubs compete.

This summer, 15 players left Spain for England. Some have been dismissed, it is true, but not all. Thomas Partey, Ferran Torres and Rodrigo Moreno were among them, and there is an economic reality that drives it and that makes it a challenge for the most difficult as well. Spain still has some of the best young players – Joao Felix, Ansu Fati and Pedri to name just three – so it may change for the better, but amid this week ‘s European hits, it has not been surprising that everyone would be so happy.

Granada and Villarreal arrested the angst a bit, giving a useful reminder that Spain is still developing players, managers and teams to compete, that the death has taken too long even though the concern remains real . They had answered the call, but more help may be needed.