An era of Spanish dominance and how it can be stopped
What if I told you that the past 5 Champions League winners have been Spanish and 4 out of the last 5 Europa League winners have been Spanish. Spanish teams are arguably at their peak when it comes to their performances in European football. Despite having a poor domestic season, Real Madrid have found a formula to success to winning the Champions League, and much can also be said about the other Spanish teams in Europe. But what makes them successful, and how can this “monopoly” be countered?
A decade of dominance
In the 30 European finals of the decade, there has been at least one Spanish representative in 22 of them. Out of the 58 finalists, 27 of them have been Spanish (Real Madrid, Atletico, Barcelona, Sevilla and Athletic on one occasion). It will be 29 out of 60 as both Madrid sides won the European competition. It also isn’t normal that of the 27 European champions during this time, 20of them have been Spanish and that Real Madrid have made it three-in-a-row against Liverpool.
Furthermore, out of the last 10 finals, only three have featured no Spanish representation (Inter-Bayern in 2010, Chelsea-Bayern in 2012 and Bayern-Dortmund in 2013). Despite La Liga being a league that’s notorious for always have a “2 horse race”, the likes of Sevilla and Atletico de Madrid have found success in Europe. Even Celta Vigo managed to reach the Europa League semi-finals, the first time in their history. Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are the only sides superior to the rest, but perhaps the others too.
Tactically superior
As current West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini once said, “Football in Spain is a very technical game. The best football is here.” Well, he’s not necessarily wrong. In order to end this era of dominance and to compete with the likes of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, there’s been a recent influx of managers that have previously managed La Liga clubs. But because of how tactical the Spanish game is, there’s always seems to be an excessively high demand from the Premier League for La Liga managers. The Premier League in general is more direct, fast-paced football, however, because there’s so many world-class managers in the Premier League, now it’s about which manager can out-think the other. Managers like Guardiola, Mourinho, Pochettino, and Emery have brought one big trait with them: calculation.
However, the problem for Premier League clubs is that Spain will never stop producing managers like Guardiola, Pochettino, and Emery. There will always be more, as we have seen with Zidane, Valverde, Marcelino, and more. The likes of the Premier League, Serie A, and the Bundesliga can try to poach La Liga’s top managers, however, what made these managers so good in La Liga was because they calculate every situation possible and are able to improvise, adapt, and overcome.
Recruitment
While the likes of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona can financially compete through other means of revenue, La Liga clubs don’t earn the same amount of money from TV deals that Premier League clubs do, but their recruitment is what’s allowed them to further compete.
“Spanish teams work very well at the academy level,” Spain coach Vicente del Bosque told AFP.
“From there, with the improvement of coaching too, it has improved the standard at club and international level.”
The Spanish have used that to their advantage. Monchi, former director of football of Sevilla, who currently works at AS Roma, has been a target of Europe’s biggest sides, as he’s one of the main factors of Sevilla’s recent success in Europe. He’s signed the likes of Dani Alves for €200,000, Ivan Rakitic for €2.5m, and many more. But what makes him so good? Because at the end of the day, he knows which markets are overvalued and undervalued, and the behavioural tendencies of many football clubs. His recruitment is mainly revolved around a strong scouting network, and just spending lots of time collecting data in areas that the big clubs won’t go scouting. Here’s what he’s had to say about it:
“We go looking for unknown players in places where we know the richer teams won’t go because they don’t think they will find anyone talented enough for them,” he said, his process explained in an enlightening interview with The Guardian ’s Sid Lowe back in 2016.
“For the first five months we watch a lot of football but with no particular aim: we’re just accumulating data,” he said. “Every month we produce an ideal XI for each league. Then in December we start watching players who appeared regularly in different contexts — home, away, international — to build the broadest possible profile.”
“There is really no secret,” Monchi said. “We watch a lot of football, we travel a lot, we work hard.” He spent six months living in London during the 2013/14 season, learning English in a bid to further his skillset. And, one imagines, to aid his negotiations with Premier League clubs. “England is a good market,” he has said. It was he who negotiated Mo Salah’s sale to Liverpool last summer — a rare mistake in the market, perhaps?
Crucially, though, Monchi’s methods produce results as well as profit. “Nobody takes a ‘great economic results’ banner to a football match,” he once said. Asked whether it was more important to buy well or sell well, he replied: “Neither, the priority is to win trophies.”
But while a scouting network is important for recruitment, a youth academy is equally as important. FC Barcelona are arguably one of world football’s biggest football clubs, yet while they’ve spent big over the past few summers, they have always had players come through the famous La Masia. While there’s a huge emphasis of local identity in FC Barcelona, but more generally in Spanish football, Barcelona and other La Liga clubs in have always hired managers that will put their faith into youth. But, while they’ve played youth, they’ve also maintained a solid core in a team, so when those core players leave, the youth players who have been playing in the first team for a long time, can step up. Take for example, FC Barcelona’s famous midfield 3. Xavi, Iniesta, and Busquets have undoubtedly dominated European football for years, however, once Xavi left, Iniesta decided to fill in his shoes and lead the team. Now that Iniesta has left for Vissel Kobe, it is likely that Busquets will lead Barcelona.
What’s the better league? Economically, with their £5.5 billion global TV deal, the Premier League is. But while the Premier League is a colossal threat (one that Tebas has warned could really hurt La Liga), La Liga’s clubs simply cannot compete economically and the fear remains that the situation may get worse, there are some advantages of English football being awash with cash: Spanish clubs rely on it, in fact.
England is the league to which they can sell, usually at huge prices; the import market to which they can export, helping to sustain them. There are more than 30 Spaniards playing in the Premier League. There is just one Briton (Gareth Bale) playing in Spain’s top division.
Money isn’t everything; at times, plentiful wealth provokes problems. It makes clubs lazy, like a modern day sporting “Hidalgo Mentality,” the presumptuous aristocratic mindset that helped undermine Imperial Spain. Why work, why produce, when you can buy? “Bread for today, hunger for tomorrow,” as the Spanish phrase has it.
By contrast, when you don’t have money you tend to seek other, more imaginative and sustainable solutions: coaching, development, construction, competition. Solutions that impact on the clubs and on the national team. A more tactical, technical approach, more focus on position, more meticulous physical preparation, a more professionalised, detailed, global vision. A philosophy. Laugh all you like but it’s true: a path to follow is vital.
Even though Premier League teams have the money and can spend big, they’ll still never be able to outsmart the Spanish when it comes to cost-efficient recruitments.
Experience
“The Spanish are divers, the Spanish are cheats,” such comments echo throughout social media whenever a Spanish team wins a European competition, so than that must mean that it’s very common. Despite the controversy around diving, the Spanish nonetheless are very experienced when it comes to tough European ties. With the way they play, they’re able to play in a more patient manner and will not rush their play in important matches. Because of this style of play, it provides the perfect rebuttal for teams that love to press or prefer keeping the ball themselves. Furthermore, considering that Spanish teams’ recruitment are typically based on the long term, these teams have several players who have been at the club for a long time.
Solutions
Smarter recruitment
As good as La Liga teams are when it comes to buying in the transfer market, there are also flaws. Yet, the issue isn’t about recruiting better than the Spanish, but being as smart as them. Sevilla have managed to find the right mix between buying young players and bringing in players from the youth academy, yet, there’s so many teams out there that have failed to have found the right mix. If teams are looking to develop a cost-efficient strategy, than it’s all about investing into youth and having a strong scouting network.
In the 2000’s, Olympique Lyonnais were by far the best team in France then, and their smart transfer policies and marketing techniques allowed them to stay on top. Lyon’s CEO Jean-Michel Aulas had developed a clever way to still compete. Their method of recruiting players would be to get a group of men to debate who to sign instead of having one specialist speak. By having a group rather than individuals decide, what this means is that there are several different opinions on who to buy and more discussion and thought that goes into scouting and buying players. He recognised that if you buy undervalued players, they will win you more games, and winning more games translates to more titles. The money you receive from such success can be further invested into buying more players and the success from titles will also bring more and more fans. Furthermore, as they would win more and more titles and games, the media would be more aware of the team and its players, and because of that, more clubs would start scouting Lyon players and eventually the demand and market value of the player would rise. However, in that space of time the market value rose exponentially, the quality of the player didn’t necessarily change, and because of that, Aulas knew how Lyon maintained their edge.
Even though Lyon are not as successful as the early 2000’s, their strategy in the early 2000’s certainly helped them remain at the highest level. All in all, if teams are looking to compete with La Liga teams in a cost-efficient way, than they certainly need to know how to win in the transfer market, and knowing the do’s and don’ts of the transfer market.
Playing a way that counters the opposition’s tactics
As difficult as it may be executing it on the pitch, teams from the other top 5 leagues need to find a way to counter the Spanish tactically on the pitch. At the moment, the Italians and the German are probably the closest when it comes to out-smarting the Spanish, and much has to do with the style of football played in their domestic leagues. In general, the English is far more faster paced and more direct, and so because of the differences in the ways that teams play, the English may not have that experience of facing very tactical teams on a regular basis, and so lack the experience to know how to counter the opposition’s tactics. On the other hand, what separates the Italians and Germans from beating the Spanish in the Champions League and Europa League is usually that final bit of quality. In general, Juventus and Bayern Munich both lack that one player that Barcelona and Real Madrid have with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. All in all, with the English and French, it’s the tactics, and with the Italians and the Germans, it’s the quality.
Spanish teams have been so dominant in Europe over the past decade that it’s come to the point that this dominance simply cannot be countered in one season. Spanish supergiants Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have cemented their presence in European football, and no matter how poorly they perform, they’re always capable to out-smarting the other team. If the demise of English teams in Europe was anything to go by, than it’s likely that the best players in the market need to bought by teams that aren’t Spanish. Let me end this article with an excerpt from Spanish football expert Sid Lowe:
Boring? Uncompetitive? Predictable? Sometimes, yes. But not all the time. There are valid comparisons to be made between leagues, although they are complex and not conclusive. And there is a worthwhile debate to be had about the difficulties faced by the Spanish league, too.
The economic gap between the top two and the rest is narrowing in terms of TV money, which has finally come under a collective, centralised deal that Tebas fought to force through, but it remains gigantic. It is also a social reality in a country where they dominate fandom and the media, and a troubling one at that.
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