Enough has been said about Barcelona but what about other Spanish league matters? Real Madrid have reinstalled Florentino Pérez as president. His first major move has been to replace Juande Ramos with Manuel Pellegrini. Ramos was going great guns with RM until the spectacular 6-2 collapse against Barcelona – the start of an extraordinary run of 5 consecutive league defeats which put paid to any hopes the former Spurs’ coach had of getting the job on a permanent basis.
The only surprising thing about the appointment of Pellegrini is that he has taken so long to get a job with one of Spanish football’s giants. The Chilean has had Villarreal playing great football for years and he deserves the chance to see what he can do with even better resources.
Barcelona will be joined in the Champions league once again by Sevilla and Atlético Madrid (assuming the latter get through the qualifiers). Villarreal will play in the UEFA along with Valencia who just held off the challenge of Deportivo La Coruña. The Galicians had a very good season after spending very little compared to the teams abovre them. Depor coach Lotina said it has been his most satisfying season as a manager despite achieving cup success and Champions League football with Espanyol and Celta respectively.
These two clubs have had contrasting ends to the season. Espanyol produced an amazing run of results towards the end of the season to finish mid-table after being bottom and looking doomed just a few short months ago. Their feat has been overshowed by their neighbours but Espanyol can now look forward to inagurating their new stadium (near Barcelona airport) in the top flight come September.
Espanyol's new stadium at Cornellà-Prat.
Celta on the other hand are in danger of freefall. The Spanish second division has a few weeks still to run and the Vigo club are in danger of slipping out of Spanish football’s second flight. They have a crucial game in Vigo against relegation rivals Alavés at the weekend and a win would go a long way towards helping Celta stay up. However, it looks very likely that one of these two clubs who were playing European football not so long ago will end up in the third division.
Whichever one survives the season will be joined in Segunda A by Real Betis. Looking at the permutations last weekend, it appeared very unlikely that the green and white giants from the banks of the Guadalquivir would go down, but results conspired against them and there will be no league derbies in Seville next season.
Betis will be joined in Segunda by Numancia and Recreativo with Xerez, Tenerife and Zaragoza looking likely to replace them among the elite.
*Ballis will probably be putting his feet up for the summer to watch some tennis and golf but might be tempted to write the odd post about the Scottish managerial merry-go-round or any other fun at the fair. Have a good summer!
