Real, Barcelona, Atletico: Stability Points to Rampant Season at Top of La Liga

The line of questioning is consistent and unrelenting: Where do you want to strengthen? What needs addressing? Who are you targeting? What do you think of him? 

This is a very particular kind of thirst that often seems insatiable, but if the fascination is sometimes tiresome, it's also understandable. This is the top end of La Liga, a world that has conditioned those within it to consider blockbuster as the new norm. Recent summers have driven it home, but for now, there's something different about the current one: a wider feeling of calm. 

"I am content with the squad we have," said Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane when dealing with the thirst at the beginning of his club's pre-season tour. "It's difficult to improve on it."

More recently, Zidane, always considered and never rash, went even stronger with his assessment: "We have the best squad in the world." 

Of course, he would say that. But so would others. 

On the other side of the country, Luis Enrique would argue the same about his collection at Barcelona. Across town in the capital, for how he likes them and with respect to his unique demands, Diego Simeone would think similar of the built-in-his-image ensemble at Atletico Madrid. But it's not simply the quality in each instance that's striking; it's the stability. 

With the 2016-17 season looming, La Liga's pair of behemoths and their rising challenger all have a settled look about them that's significant for the fact it's concurrent.

At Real, there has been none of the characteristic upheaval this summer, the nucleus of the squad left untouched. At Barcelona, the same theme is evident in regard to the team's core, even amid plenty of movement on the squad's periphery. At Atletico, meanwhile, Simeone will roll out a team based on the now-familiar template in the coming season but with the addition of more firepower.

Ominous for the rest? You betcha.

And the stability goes beyond playing personnel. It extends to the men in charge, too, the looming campaign shaping up as a blitz year for Spain's heavyweights. 

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For the first time since Simeone's Atletico propelled La Liga's title race into a three-team era, all three contenders are entering a new season with continuity in the dugout and the dressing room. This will be Simeone's fifth full season in charge; Enrique's third; Zidane's first. 

But the key point is that all are approaching 2016-17 in a state of progression rather than discovery. And that's new. 

In recent years, at least one and often two of these outfits have undergone major restructuring in the summer months. In 2012, Barcelona watched Pep Guardiola leave them, replacing him with the late Tito Vilanova. A year later, Gerardo Martino was brought in when Vilanova stepped down amid his battle with cancer, while Real Madrid parted ways with Jose Mourinho after a bitter final year and replaced him with Carlo Ancelotti.  

In 2014, Enrique arrived at the Camp Nou and brought stylistic evolution with him. At the same time, Real were busy re-modelling a squad to flawed principles, and Atletico were stuck in a post-title rebuild following a wave of departures. 

Then last summer, Real disposed of Ancelotti to appoint Rafa Benitez, while Atletico were entering a period of tactical experimentation. Only the Catalans had a look of stability. 

But now they all do, and thus a potentially rampant season at the top awaits.

The margins are about to get finer. 

Season	Champions	Points
2015-16	Barcelona	91
2014-15	Barcelona	94
2013-14	Atletico Madrid	90
2012-13	Barcelona	100
2011-12	Real Madrid	100

Since 2013, the points tallies required to clinch La Liga have fallen—only slightly, yes, but enough to be significant.

Whereas at the beginning of the decade the Primera Division had become a 100-point league, for three straight seasons now it's hovered around the 90-point mark. The causes of that have been multidimensional, but a key factor has been the regular existence of transitional phases for the country's elite.

In that, the vice-like grip of the heavyweights has slipped fractionally, points dropped more regularly than they once were and the impact of a loss not quite what it was. For example, five seasons ago in 2011-12, Real and Barcelona lost five games between them; last season, they'd lost that many by early December. 

Thus, the margins have grown a little wider in recent years. There's been more room for slips, hiccups and bumpy periods in the absence of an unrelenting outfit from beginning to end. Last term, Barcelona dropped 11 points out of 12 in March and April and still lifted the title anyway. Real needed most of the season to get their act together, but they still only missed out by a single point. 

Similar occurrences were seen in the two campaigns prior, too. But the coming season?

It looks different. 

Balanced and harmonious, settled and free from insecurities, Spain's leading trio appear headed for a furious, all-eclipsing dash to the line in 2016-17.

Barcelona enter it looking to extend a dynasty, their fearsome lineup buoyed by added depth and supported by a collective identity few can match. At Real Madrid, there's momentum as well, the club well-placed to build on the platform established during last season's late surge under Zidane. 

Then there's Atletico with their resolve and resilience, only this time they'll pack the stylistically compatible Kevin Gameiro and Nicolas Gaitan into it as well to make it more dynamic. 

GERARD JULIEN/Getty Images

The knock-on effect of this top-end stability is likely to be a widening gap between La Liga's leaders and the rest in the season ahead—one we've seen before but that had recently been closing just fractionally. 

When Real and Barcelona took their dominance to unprecedented heights earlier this decade, the gap between themselves and the league's "other" clubs wasn't so much a gap but a chasm. The Clasicos bordered on title deciders on their own; everything was about the Clasico; by 2011-12, Valencia in third were closer on points to relegation than the title. 

Throughout that period, Spain's clubs were hit hard by the financial crisis and irresponsible ownership. Countless went through administration, wages went unpaid and squads were gutted. The country and its football has been recovering since, but a sometimes-glossed-over aspect of Real and Barcelona's absurd supremacy in those years was their stability at the time. 

At the Santiago Bernabeu, the Galactico obsession had been temporarily shelved amid the presence and authority of Mourinho. The squad turnover was minimal, the team functioned in a way it often hasn't and there was an encompassing idea. Barcelona, meanwhile, were in the middle of Guardiola's historic tenure. 

To the rest of the league, the two were almost bulletproof. 

Now, though the circumstances aren't identical, there are similarities: The continuity, the clarity in purpose, the certainty in identity. 

That gap that's been closing, then—it looks set to widen once more. 

Unlike in recent seasons when La Liga's giants have started either steadily or somewhat shakily before exploding later on, this time their pace is likely to be hot right from the beginning. Real won't face the cohesion issues of early last term. Barcelona won't be dealing with the systematic transition of the summer before. Atletico aren't undergoing the squad reconstruction they have in other years. 

Those nearest to them are facing new challenges, too. 

At Villarreal, key faces have been lost before a campaign that will feature the added strain of a Champions League stint. At Valencia, a sort of reset button has been hit in order to comply with financial fair play regulations, and though there's potential at Sevilla under Jorge Sampaoli, there's uncertainty, too, following the departure of Unai Emery and his relative consistency. 

These subtle but significant shifts in league-wide dynamics leave the 2016-17 season looming as the sort we've seen before. That's not to say this will be a long-term trend—in fact, there's good reason to suggest the opposite is true—but in possessing rare, concurrent stability, the league's always-fearsome heavyweights look better prepared collectively than they have for some time. 

A potentially rampant season at the top awaits. 

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