After the international break, La Liga resumes with a full fixture list this weekend and it is an unfamiliar name which sits on top of La Liga (albeit on goal difference). Unfancied Las Palmas have got off to a flyer this season defeating Valencia 4-2 Away in their opening game then putting Granada to the sword 5-1 in their opening home game last time out. Granted, it is still very early days but could Las Palmas be about to do a Leicester city and fly under the radar to glory? In the betting stakes, these Spanish minnows are unfancied, with this review of Bovada.lv putting them at … [Read more...]
Spanish dominance set to continue in Europe
Chairing the UEFA Elite Coaches forum this week in Nyon, Sir Alex Ferguson offered the view that the Spanish clubs dominance of European football is set to continue. He has a point. Since 2014, the FIFA World Club Cup and Champions League has resided in either the Bernabeu or Camp Nou. The Europa League has been the sole preserve of Sevilla at the same time. Pep Guardiola swapped Catalunya for Bavaria and a shift in fortunes was expected. Bayern Munich, dominant at home, were going to usurp Barcelona abroad. La Liga didn’t care. Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona went to Munich; … [Read more...]
Could Sevilla Survive Without Monchi?
Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo, more commonly known as Monchi, is quite possibly the most important figure in European football that you have never heard of. Born in San Fernando in 1968, Monchi was a goalkeeper who spent the entirety of his nine year playing career with Sevilla. It was after he hung up his boots in 1999, however, that Monchi really rose to prominence. Just a year after his retirement, when Sevilla were relegated from the Spanish top division in the year 2000, Monchi was appointed as the club’s new director of football. Sevilla’s board gave him two clear instructions; develop the … [Read more...]
Why Have So Few English Managers Made the Switch to La Liga?
At the start of the 2016/17 Premier League season David Moyes will be in the Sunderland dugout and Gary Neville will be in a TV studio. Not so long ago, however, both were enjoying sunnier climes as managers in Spain’s La Liga. Moyes took the helm of comparatively lowly Real Sociedad and Neville was installed at Valencia by an owner who also happens to be his business partner, and yet both appointments were still huge news in England. The reason those appointments did make so many headlines is because it is today so unusual for British and more specifically English managers to score a top … [Read more...]
Ter Stegen, Bravo or Masip: Who Will be Barca’s Number One this Season?
At top clubs like Barcelona competition for places is always fierce. In order to compete at the highest level, Europe’s premier teams have to stack their squads full of talent and that means that top class players can often find themselves outside of the first eleven. What is perhaps not quite so common, however, is for there to be as fierce a competition for the goalkeeper’s number one jersey as there appears to be at the Nou Camp this season. Ahead of the 2016/17 campaign, the trio of Marc-André ter Stegen, Claudio Bravo and Jordi Masip have designs on that prestigious position, and … [Read more...]