La Liga & Beyond: The La Liga Edition

The end of season round up looking at the best and worst in La Liga

With the season over, it’s time to look at some of the best and worst moments of the season in La Liga.

When I look back at this season I will think of

Barca’s young generation starting to come through and not just thinking of Lamine Yamal here.

The 23rd June 2024 should live long in Barca fans memories, that day they lost a play-off final to Cordoba to come up to Segunda but they did so with Hector Fort, Marc Casado, Gerard Martin, Pau Victor, Marc Bernal and Marc Guiu. While Bernal has not broke through just yet and Guiu left to Chelsea the rest have established themselves in the first team squad.

There are plenty of negatives to B teams in the league system but if their is a benefit it is that they get exposed to high pressure situations. That game against Cordoba will live long in the memory for the impact it’s had on football for both teams.

Biggest breakthrough

Aside from Barcelona, there have been so many this season, Raul Asensio plugging the gap Real Madrid have defensively but the issues with his private life make it hard to pick him until it’s cleared up.

The biggest breakthrough for me is going to have to be Christantus Uche, Ceuta signed him for just €800 that’s less than a mortgage payment at the minute and sold him to Getafe for €500,000 a year later.

He was signed as a holding midfielder but Getafe had such a small squad and no strikers he ended up playing up front where he’s scored four goals and got six assists. Those 10 goal contributions mean almost 33% of Getafe’s goals Uche had a hand in this season not bad for a supposed holding midfielder and the future feels bright for the Nigerian.

Best signing

As always there has been so many good signings, La Liga clubs don’t have the money or budget to waste. Maroan Sannadi was playing in the third tier and he even scored twice against Athletic Club’s B team when he moved from a loan at Barakaldo to Athletic Club.

He bullied Roma in the Europa League and he is such a unique player. Uche is another but as he’s already won the previous award it goes to Antony.

He was ridiculed in England and he might not ever make it in the physicality of the Premier League but he was fantastic for Betis and turned their season round. I hope he stays another year as his partnership with Isco is a joy to football.

Best fans

For a start those Real Valladolid fans deserve massive credit, they continued to turn up home and away despite seeing their side fail to even compete most weeks. Espanyol made the RCDE a cauldron at times as do Osasuna and Betis at their grounds.

Alaves though take thousands away and travel thousands of kilometres on bus, coach and plane to see their team so I am going to give them the award this season. Honourable mention to the Galician invasion of the capital by Celta this season for the final day game against Getafe.

Most entertaining team

So many sides were a lot of fun. Barca played that high line where it almost looked on the verge of chaos but was so well implemented. Rayo, Betis and Athletic were all fun in their own way but it’s going to Galicia this year.

Celta under Benitez were dreadful and who would have thought taking out a La Liga and Champions League winning coach and replacing him with the B team coach would see such a turnaround.

They played great football and did it with local players which makes it even more special.

Most boring team

I won’t be picking Getafe as watching them is attritional but they are restricted by their budget. Even Real Valladolid with 90 goals conceded weren’t boring they were just really bad.

Real Sociedad have so much attacking talent and yet they finished the season with just 35 goals scored, they just went stale this season unfortunately and the change of coach might help spice things up.

Biggest disappointment

Many might go with Girona here but I think context of the achievement they made the season before and who they lost in the summer means they were never going to be able to cope with the demands of two competitions.

For me the biggest disappointments have to be Sevilla, I didn’t expect them to pull up any trees but 17th and chaos off the field has just added to the sense of malaise at the club. From being an example of a well run club who consistently bloodied the nose of Europe’s best clubs to now having a budget of less than a €1 million.

Real Madrid might get a mention by some for not putting up a better challenge for the title but they last won back to back titles in 2008 this isn’t what they have done in recent times.

Arda Guler not getting the chance to breakthrough has also been a big disappointment this season and something that Xabi Alonso might solve in 25/26.

Biggest surprise

Quite the list here both good and bad, I thought Sebastian Haller would be a good fit for Leganes who like to use a target man but he left just three months after signing with no goals in his 8 appearances. Who would have thought that Wojciech Szczęsny would have such an impact in Spain when he was sat on a beach in Marbella smoking a cigar when the call came in. Antony came in as a caricature in January and left as Antony of Triana but for me the surprise and it shouldn’t have been is how Isco has continued his form. He not only continued his form from last season but improved it with a record of 33 games, 12 goals and 11 assists and fully deserves his call up to the Spanish national team.

Another honourable mention for Carlos Corberan, I thought with Lim’s history this would be a bad appointment despite thinking he is a good coach but he has been excellent. The main thing now is hoping he doesn’t have his legs cut out from under him by the owner.

Best prediction

Athletic Club to make the Champions League, people just constantly underrate what a job Ernesto Valverde does. Also Real Madrid not to win the title, it’s been 17 seasons now since they won La Liga back to back.

Worst prediction

I thought Luis Carrion would impress as he stepped up to La Liga to coach Las Palmas, instead he lasted 9 matches and didn't win any of them.

Real Valladolid gave some false hope on match day one with a victory over Espanyol but then returned to the norm of being a yo-yo club.

Not the worst prediction by any means but I did expect Mallorca to qualify for European football and push on so slightly disappointed with their end of season.

Unsung hero

Ante Budimir goes under the radar outside of Navarre. 21 goals for Osasuna is some achievement. He also became Osasuna’s all time top scorer in La Liga and if he leaves it will be a sad day but his buyout clause looks attainable for a lot of clubs.

Marcelino also deserves a mention, he is an excellent manager and yet again has taken Villarreal back into Europe and the Champions League.

Oihan Sancet still somehow doesn’t get enough recognition, in a summer where once again Nico Williams will be the talk transfer wise

Coach of the Season

There are so many candidates, Hansi Flick will get plenty of plaudits after a fantastic debut season. Claudio Giráldez and Iñigo Pérez have overseen huge turnarounds at Celta and Rayo. They've taken their teams from relegation candidates last season to European qualification so for me they jointly get coach of the season.

Again here Ernesto Valverde and Marcelino deserve a shout out for the job they’ve done as does Manolo Gonzalez who did a fantastic job keeping Espanyol up as did Carlos Corberan.

Young player of the season

Halfway through the season this could have been a very different story.

Juma Bah was spotted playing in Sierra Leone as an 18 year old, brought over for Real Valladolid B team. It took one game to realise he was something special, 10 games later and Man City realised that as well and exploited the fact Real Valladolid had him on a youth team contract to buy him for €6 million, if he had been put on a first team contract which Valladolid never did they'd have received €30 million.

Similar to Juma Bah, Yan Diomande was picked up from a club in Africa for the B team in January and immediately broke into the first team where on the final day he almost single handedly kept them up.

The young player of the season though needs no explaining or words, Lamine Yamal.

Player of the season

It could easily come down to Yamine Lamal, Raphinha or Pedri here. Both have been outstanding. Alex Baena, Joan Garcia, Robert Lewandowski, Ante Budimir and Kylian Mbappe all had fantastic seasons. People say Mbappe didn’t play well, he got 31 goals in 34 games. Lamine Yamal for me did things nobody else was doing so he gets this award.

Worst of us

Real Valladolid did to La Liga what Sheff Utd did to the Premier League in 23/24. They came up with no expectation of staying up and were a complete shambles on and off the pitch.

At one point we even had players fighting on the bench during another heavy defeat. They finished the season with just 16 points, conceded 90 goals scored just 26 and lost their last twelve matches, Pucela last tasted victory on the 11th January against Real Betis which in turn pushed them to revitalise their squad and sign Antony. The one bright spot is it’s looking like Ronaldo is finally leaving.

Predictably upsetting

It’s getting harder and harder for clubs to stay up once promoted from Segunda. Two of the three promoted sides went back down and the third Espanyol were the other side who could have fallen through the trapdoor on the final day. We’re getting more and more yo-yo clubs and someone should really do a series on that.

Best moment of the season

There is probably some recency bias here but that Aspas goal to seal Europa League football for Celta to ensure we get a return of Euro-Celta was a truly beautiful moment and much deserved for a man who has at times single handedly kept Celta in La Liga.

Worst moment of the season

Kirian announcing his cancer had returned for a second time hit everyone hard and it goes way beyond football in how that was by far the worst moment of the season.

Did what they came for

Sometimes we don’t appreciate teams who just did what they needed to do. Getafe needed to stay up this season and they did. Again and again Jose Bordalas creates a team who fight for every ball and are super competitive despite having a tiny budget. People might not find it pretty but it's effective and they compete with a tiny budget.

If rumours are true and he leaves Getafe it will be a sad day.

What if moment

When we put this out as a question on Twitter/X almost every answer went back to Leganes. The South Madrid side are one loved by many neutrals and despite reaching the mythical 40 point mark they went down. One what if related to the sending off of Seydouba Cisse in the 19th minute in a crucial game against Girona, Lega drew the game and finished in the bottom three by a point. The next related to Diomande missing a gilt-edged chance against another relegation rival in Sevilla.

Best Game

By nature running this account which focuses on the other sides this shouldn’t be Clasico territory but there was just something about the sheer number of times Kylian Mbappe was caught offside in that first Clasico that made it mesmerising. It was just totally ridiculous watching this high line again and again catch one of the best strikers in the world out.

Another contender was Leganes v Alaves 3-3, the ref livened it up with some strange penalty decisions but it was end to end, had penalties, jeopardy with both sides battling to stay up and even a late sending off.

You’ll be missed

We say goodbye to Luka Modric and Don Carlo Ancelotti two icons of Real Madrid who just are great people as well as fantastic footballers and coach. Raul Albiol also said goodbye and he’s been a huge part of Spanish football these last two decades.

It looks like we say goodbye to the Scottish duo Oli McBurnie and Scott McKenna although McKenna could be on the move to Levante which would be great.

Imanol Alguacil was a boyhood fan doing what we all dreamed of coaching his team Real Sociedad. While it had gone stale he will be sorely missed.

Borja Jimenez who has gone from a third tier promotion specialist to a La Liga coach in just a couple of seasons said goodbye to Leganes.

We also for now say goodbye to the Benito Villamarin, one of Spain’s most iconic grounds is getting a revamp and Betis at La Cartuja is going to take some of the joy out of watching Spain’s most joyful team.

On another note we also say goodbye to one of the bad owners in Ronaldo, he might be an icon as a player but he leaves a lot to be desired as an owner.

Hot take for 25/26

Julian Calero will surprise a few next season the coach has consistently been excellent in Segunda and more than deserves a shot at La Liga.

If Joan Garcia leaves for Barca expect chaos both as they try to work out what to do with the three keepers they already have and him and expect the derbi to ramp up even more in what has already been a tense few seasons.

Finally European football could be a blessing and a curse for Rayo with such a small squad.

Also I have a feeling Real Sociedad might struggle although no European football could help next season and the summer window will help shape how their season will go.