2024/25 LaLiga Preview

LaLiga continues to be a star studded affair, but the 2 Madrid sides and Barcelona certainly had a shock when Girona made their way to the top of the table in the early portion of last season. 

Owned by City Football Group who are also in charge of reigning Premier League champions Manchester City, Girona ended the season finishing 3rd and qualifying for the Champions League. Since the close of last season though, Girona have had quite the fire sale, parting ways with some of their most important players. Ukrainian striker Artem Dovbyk topped the league with 24 goals last season and has now left for Roma for £25.5m. Central Midfielder Aleix García was also sold to Bayer Leverkusen for £15m and then City Football Group made the decision to not extend the loans of Yan Couto (sold to Borussia Dortmund from Manchester City) and Savinho (sold to Manchester City from Troyes). Besides any monetary value, these moves leave Girona in a position where 37 goals and 34 assists from the last campaign have walked out the door. 

The signings Girona have made look to be a real concern, with them not bringing in players who appear to have the quality that their team from last season had. They could be seen as “cannon fodder” in the Champions League and look likely to slip to a far worse position in the league if they aren’t careful. At least 3 additional good quality signings, if not more, are needed for Girona to be as competitive as they were last season so it’s doubtful they will break into the top 4 again.

Atlético Madrid finished below Girona last season in 4th place and Diego Simeone will not be accepting a repeat of that. The seasons before have seen Atlético come a lot closer to their city rivals Real Madrid as well as Barcelona, even if it was 3rd place and as a 2 time winner of La Liga, Simeone always expects to be in a 3-horse race. Given that they weren’t in the race at all last season, it seems like adjustments have been made;

A staggering sum of money has been shelled out to bring Atlético back to a competitive level. Julián Alvarez (£82m), Robin Le Normand (£29.3m) and Alexander Sørloth (£27.2m) have all been brought in to hopefully spark the change needed to see them competitive with their 2 giant rivals again. The 2 strikers were especially necessary as Atlético finished the season on 70 total goals which was 17 away from Real Madrid’s total. 

Should the signings hit the ground running and prove effective, Real Madrid and Barcelona will have an extra struggle to keep Atlético at bay, something they didn’t particularly have to account for over the last season. However, competing with clubs of this size and magnitude is hard to keep up with given the improvements going on over the other side of Madrid as well as Catalonia.

The ElClásico next season will be amongst some of the biggest and most season-defining that we’ve ever seen. Many have predicted Real Madrid to run away with the league this season with the addition of Kylian Mbappé paired with LaLiga’s player of the season Jude Bellingham. But the emergence of Lamine Yamal at Euro 2024 provides Barcelona with hope that they will take their bitter rivals all the way next season. With the addition of Dani Olmo who also stood out at Euro 2024, it’s hoped that Barcelona’s new coach Hansi Flick will go into the season to dominate game after game, much like Madrid are expected to.

The 2 teams have a memorable history of intense matches and league titles being snatched out of the other’s hands at the very end of the season. Barcelona’s stars must remain fit for them to be seen as remotely competitive with Real Madrid though. Both sides on paper are amongst the best in the world but players such as Pedri, Gavi and Frenkie de Jong have all had multiple injuries over the last year that has set Barcelona back whereas Madrid managed to cope with their injuries to key players and still win the Champions League on top of LaLiga.

It really isn’t easy for anyone to look past Carlo Ancelotti and Real Madrid as it stands though. To have what most would assume to be the best squad in the world and then add one of the best players in the world to it, is more than likely going to result in more success than it is failures. Barcelona appear to be the only team capable of putting up anything that can be considered as a challenge right now, but their young, developing squad need to prove they can stave off injuries and play at a level as good as their title rivals for this to be anything close to a possibility.

Champions: Real Madrid

Runners Up: Barcelona

Top 4: Atlético Madrid, Real Sociedad

Top Scorer: Kylian Mbappé

Top Assists: Nico Williams