The last season of the Spanish football league ended with FC Barcelona’s championship celebration, but as the new season begins, the situation around the club is once again challenging. The successful club has been struggling with financial problems and the financial regulations of the Spanish league for several years.
Barcelona starts its league season on Sunday, but the team currently has only 12 Spanish league-registered players available for the series opener. US sports website The Athletic reportsthat not all players have been made eligible for representation as Barcelona are currently in breach of La Liga’s salary cap rules.
About summer purchases Inigo Martinez, Ilkay Gundogan mixed Oriol Romeu are still without a game license. In practice, the club must balance the salary expenses of the players and the income received by the club. This is what Barcelona is trying to do, among other things, by selling its media rights and its players.
Most recently, the team traded a star player Ousmane Dembele’s To Paris Saint-Germain for around 50 million euros.
However, the amount is half less than what Spain’s second great club, Real Madrid, paid for their summer star acquisition Jude from Bellingham.
Real Madrid experienced massive losses
Both Real Madrid and FC Barcelona lost experienced key players after last season. Scored goals as Madrid’s number one striker for more than a decade Karim Benzema moved to Saudi Arabia and in recent years a pier that has steadily gained credit Marco Asensio Like Dembele to PSG.
However, “Los Blancos” experienced perhaps their hardest loss on Thursday. The team’s star goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois injured his anterior cruciate ligament in training and according to various estimates, is sidelined for most of the season after surgery.
The Belgian goalkeeper, who has played more than 6,000 minutes in La Liga over the past two seasons, is among the best in the world, but the head coach Carlo Ancelotti trust the 24-year-old To Andriy Lunin as a replacement for Courtois.
– We have full credit in Lunin, who is a great goalkeeper. He has been really good throughout the training season, Ancelotti said According to the BBC.
Lunin has played a total of nine La Liga matches in his three seasons in white shirts. The test in the starting season will be tough, if he is the Madrid team’s choice as the number one goalkeeper. It has been rumored in the European media that Madrid is also looking for a replacement for Courtois in the transfer market.
In the attack, the gap left by Benzema is being tried to be filled by the veteran striker who came on loan from Espanyol Joselu as well as the one who is most comfortable on the edge Vinicius Junior. Joselu tried to make a breakthrough in Madrid more than ten years ago without success, so the striker who scored 16 goals last season will now get another chance.
Kylian Mbappe has been rumored for several summers to Madrid, but the star striker’s move has still not materialized. At the beginning of the season, Ancelotti may see the familiar solution from the training games of playing brass player Vinicius as the second tip in the two-striker tactic.
Barcelona’s golden generation is history
FC Barcelona’s lineup has again changed even more than Madrid’s. The last key players of the “golden generation” left the club, while the midfield playmaker Sergio Busquets and Fullback Jordi Alba were directed by the club legend Lionel Messi’s followed by Inter Miami.
Busquets was the head coach with the national team Pep Guardiola’s since the created dynasty. With the young responsibilities bearers, a new era will start now at the latest, because the team that won the Champions League in 2015 only has one goalkeeper left Marc-Andre ter Stegen and played a small role at the time Sergi Roberto.
The uproar around Barcelona is caused by a brass star Neymar’s possible return to Catalonia. Before the series opener, the rumors get more rounds in the European media.
If the “Blaugrana” get their salary and game license issues sorted out, both Real Madrid and Barcelona will have really high-quality players in the midfield by the standards of European football.
Gundogan, who came from Manchester City, agrees with the head coach Xavi game style. Barcelona’s possession percentage last season, taking into account all competitions, was a whopping 63.5 per game. City’s equivalent was 63.2.
Gundogan, who is great with his ball security, gets to play to his strengths and the physical Romeu brings a defensive option Gavin, Peter’s and Frankie De Jong’s alongside.
With the arrival of Bellingham, who excelled in Dortmund with his comprehensiveness, there are wildly versatile options in the Madrid midfield. Experienced Luka Modric and Toni Kroos are Ancelotti’s trusted players since the last decade. Young people Eduardo Camavinga, Aurelien Tchouameni, Federico Valverde and transferred from AC Milan Brahim Diaz bring running power, ball skills and scoring threat to Real’s ranks.
– It is rare to find such a quality player. He is only 20 years old so he can still improve, Ancelotti praised Bellingham in July after a training match.
The turmoil of the big clubs is completed by the fact that both start their season in “evako”. Barcelona’s legendary Camp Nou is under renovation, so the team will play all of their home games this season at Barcelona’s 1992 Olympic Stadium, which has become familiar as Espanyol’s home stadium.
Real Madrid will play their first three matches away from home because the renovation of the nearly 80-year-old Santiago Bernabeu is still in progress.
The seasons of blood enemies begin in the throes of change.