Spanish football tracks from this Friday an unusual territory.
A most shocking League begins in Pamplona (Osasuna-Sevilla, 9:00 p.m., Movistar), with an unprecedented Christmas World Cup, not a summer one, in sight.
An appointment from November 20 to December 18 that will inevitably disrupt the conventional evolution of football, from physical to mental attributes.
Qatar will be an unknown scale for all club championships.
But not only this World Cup with forceps will condition the football course.
From the outset, the 92nd edition of the League gets under way with an overdose of financial misgivings and a market open until September 1.
Few insoles are buckled.
In many lack signings.
In times of strict economic controls by the bosses, after so many years of waste, football has a hard time assuming what it sees as a Franciscan austerity.
Today you have to tune up like never before and contracting means, in most clubs,
forcing
parallel layoffs.
It doesn't matter if it's Barcelona's Frenkie de Jong or Betic Álex Moreno.
The clubs need to make cash and reduce costs.
For this, the desire of a tooth-pulling manager is not enough.
The last word belongs to the players with a contract, who do not accept according to which trip.
06:04
The predictions of EL PAÍS journalists for this season
Salary limits oblige without exception.
Barça or Almería know it.
The Barça entity has been tightrope walking for months to balance the accounts.
by
lever
clean tries to clean up the present at the expense of the future.
But it is not yet clear that his coach, Xavi Hernández, can enlist the five signings (Christensen, Koundé, Lewandowski, Raphinha and Kessié) and the renewed Sergi Roberto and Dembélé against Rayo (Saturday, 9:00 p.m.).
The Professional Football League (LFP) must give the go-ahead, a procedure that can be sealed just until the teams inform the referee of the match of the event's starters and substitutes.
On Thursday, for example, Almería, who will be Real Madrid's rival on Sunday (22:00), only had 16 registered.
Among them the Nigerian Sadiq, his star, whom he has in the window and may not even arrive as
Almeria
on Sunday.
Like many others, also Betis, brand new Cup champion who receives the centenary Elche on Monday (9:30 p.m.), has a considerable mess.
Of such depth that not even Joaquín, a Verdiblanco icon, is guaranteed a place after his renovation.
At 41 years old, the player from Porto aspires to be the player with the most footsteps in the history of the League.
With 600 games under his belt, he has the most eternal within reach: Andoni Zubizarreta (622).
One step away from Betis, in Nervión they don't throw confetti.
Isco seduced on Wednesday in his presentation (12,500 spectators, according to the Sevilla entity), but he will miss several days until he gets the right form, and the team has deficiencies in its solid defensive scaffolding after the departure of the centurions Diego Carlos and Koundé.
Marcao, at the moment the only replacement for him, has been out for weeks.
Monchi, renowned
recorder
, will have to remove the top hat as almost never.
With the national and international bazaar so conditioned by economic squeezes, in the League there has been no red carpet for high-flying signings.
The neon lights for the Polish Lewandowski, who will be 34 years old on the 21st.
Aside from the cobwebs in the treasuries, medical and nutritional advances today allow many to stretch their careers.
It is a general phenomenon.
At 35, Morales has crossed from the overcast Levante to the resplendent Villarreal.
The same as Reina (40 years old on August 31), where he reviews Albiol (37 on September 4), his comrade in war stories on his legendary journey in South Africa 2010. In the League, the bingo of all bingos still leaves footprint Navas, Silva, Piqué and Busquets.
Reina is a goalkeeper, which augurs more filming for him, like Asenjo —from Villarreal to Valladolid at 33 years old—,
Kiko Casilla —from Elche to Getafe with 35— and Diego López —from Espanyol to Rayo with 40—.
Curious about the Vallecano team, that a season after picking up Falcao (36) now intends to close Diego Costa (33), a forward that refers to football Altamira.
In the booths few movements of soccer players and, even less, of coaches.
Only Espanyol (Diego Martínez for Vicente Moreno), Athletic (Ernesto Valverde for Marcelino) and Valencia (Gattuso for Bordalás) have changed.
In short, little pyrotechnics.
Except at the Camp Nou, where the rats burst metaphorically.
His raids on the roof of the stadium went viral after the Gamper Trophy last year.
The urgent renovation of the azulgrana ranch is already underway.
Real Madrid went ahead with the one at the Bernabéu, which will mean that in this League the champion will not appear before his team until September 3 against Betis.
Before that, he will play consecutively in Almería, Vigo and Cornellà.
Pending a Bernabéu from another galaxy, the entity has limited the retouching of the squad to Rüdiger, a mature German central defender battered at Chelsea, and Tchouameni, a 22-year-old midfielder in the Camavinga line (19).
And that this Madrid of Benzema, Modric, Kroos and company is ageless.
So much rope that not even Ancelotti fears a cold from his great captain.
The double – treble, if you will, with the European Super Cup – supports this Real.
Of course, the story too.
Madrid (35 League titles) and Barça (26) have shared all the thrones shuffled this century except for one from Dépor and two from Valencia and Atlético, respectively.
For the successes of Betis, Sevilla, Athletic and Real Sociedad, you have to rewind to the previous century.
In principle, except for some unexpected growth spurt, the great candidate for a possible wedge between Real and Barça is Atlético.
It maintains its structure, reinforced with the Witsel solvent and the necessary Molina.
Luis Suárez is not there, Morata is, the striker who is expected to lead Spain in Qatar.
As expected, Griezmann with France, Cunha with Brazil, Correa with Argentina and João Félix with Portugal.
That is Simeone's dynamite,
It happens that nobody is capable of specifying the jolt that the World Cup will entail.
At the moment, changes in the physical plans of the teams.
There are 14 days and a marathon of European duels until the curtain opens in Qatar.
In Spain, a league break from November 9 to December 31.
With the summer World Cups, the footballers did not have time to be distracted since the games of each club concluded in May.
Now it is possible to regulate in another way and greater containment until Qatar and an acceleration from January.
Agents also predict a winter market on the rise.
The World Cup revalues like nothing.
The League, the clubs, on edge.
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