La Liga? Premier League? Why This Is the Season for Devotees to Embrace Both
It's started already.
"I can NOT believe your folks would spend that sor'a coin," bemoaned one of them. Agreeing, another one nodded, gruffly muttering: "Absolute bollocks."
Looking back at them, a menacing sort of grin on his face, the third was loving it. "You're just pissed that my folks 'ave more dough than yours," he snapped back.
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In fairness to Jurgen Klopp, Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho, they're not at all the words that they used as they shot back and forth over the arrival of Paul Pogba at Manchester United. But they may as well have been; that is essentially what they'd said, and this is the soap opera that is the Premier League.
Right now, England's top division feels as though it's put itself in overdrive mode. The influx of mega managers has made it more personality driven than perhaps ever before; massive spending has given it a glitzy feel; the Hollywoodish arrival of Pogba at United has given it a cultural cool.
This is modern football, they say. And yet it's not like this everywhere.
In Spain, the current summer surrounding La Liga has felt remarkably quiet in comparison. The big clubs are unusually stable all at the same time, the list of shiny new things from the transfer market is short, personalities aren't running into each other like small planets, and there's been little bickering between the usual sides.
For La Liga, it will soon come, but the "it" will be so different.
And that's the point: The extreme contrast between these leagues will make for a rich footballing cocktail for fans in the season ahead.
This is the time to embrace them both—if you can put aside football's new, peculiar kind of fandom.
This particular fandom is difficult to get your head around.
"Boring! Uncompetitive! Two-team league!" they shout from one side. "Long-ball rubbish! Over-hyped junk!" they shout back from the other.
This has become the argument that's always there, only needing the tiniest of triggers for it to burst into life. In each stance, there might be a small degree of the truth amid the irrational noise, but the whole thing is tiresome anyway; bemusing, too.
When did fandom extend itself to leagues as a whole? When did it become necessary to relentlessly promote a league rather than a team, and thus completely reject the other?
When did it become "Long live the Premier League" vs. "Viva La Liga"?
Such a phenomenon isn't limited to just these two, but it's between the top divisions of England and Spain that this odd feud roars loudest. Premier League devotees look down on La Liga's organisational flaws and comparative inequality; La Liga aficionados mock the Premier League's egotism, bashing its perceived technical limitations with a sort of pure-football snobbery.
Underneath it all, there are interesting and important discussions to be had over the strengths and weaknesses of each, as well as over the causes for the on-field advantage of one over the other at particular points in time.
But instead, derisory shouting rules, and as it does, the joy to be had from these two leagues as a combination gets lost.
For the viewer, these divisions can be complementary in our endless thirst for this sport. Their flavour, their football, their environments—the differences are so vast that immersion in both becomes a rewarding experience, one of fun through variety.
And this season, that contrast feels bigger than it has for some time.
The looming campaign in the Premier League is probably the most anticipated there's been in years. That's in part due to the sort of football one can expect—which should be the best it's been for a while—but it's also massively driven by personalities.
This will be the season of Pep Guardiola vs. Mourinho vs. Klopp vs. Wenger vs. Antonio Conte vs. Mauricio Pochettino vs. Claudio Ranieri. To the man on his couch, do the players even matter? (The answer should be yes, but often it doesn't seem so clear-cut.)
Admittedly, Guardiola and Conte in particular bring with them a sense of sophistication in what they do, but you can already see where the Premier League's broader theme is being taken right now: When will Arsene shove Jose? Will Jose grab his groin in response in a you-know-what gesture?
Will he (any number of men) and the other guy (any number of men) shake hands?
Will Tony Pulis poke Klopp in the eye with his cap?
When will Mourinho's pestering of Pep begin?
How long before Pep cracks, breaking his silence to fight his corner?
Who will Alan Pardew offend this time, other than the many dance schools around south-east London?
Over the top? Probably. But as much as the football that should be compelling, this is now all part of the Premier League. The bumper crowds stir it up further. And, as a weird sort of guilty pleasure, it's damn fun, too—the league's global popularity says it is.
Just enjoy it, and chuckle along.
And when it's done, enjoy the other league too.
Like the Premier League, La Liga is hardly foreign to drama. Spain of course is the place where football and politics meet more than they do elsewhere; where the world's biggest rivalry lies; where four newspapers go head-to-head—two on each side—in a battle for being the most childish.
It's a world driven by Real Madrid vs. Barcelona and all that comes with it, but the feel around it now is different to what it's been in other years.
In comparison to the Guardiola-Mourinho era, the Real Madrid-Barcelona rivalry that defines the league is in a slightly defused period at present. Though Barcelona manager Luis Enrique can be prickly with members of the press, he doesn't provoke rivals. At Real Madrid, Zinedine Zidane doesn't put a foot wrong in press conferences either. And leading their rising challenger, Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid doesn't have the time nor care for a battle that isn't a football one.
"Game by game," he says over and over.
Of course, there will be others keen to stir things up, but ahead of 2016-17, the anticipation surrounding La Liga among its wider audience centres almost purely on football; on football for the sake of football.
That experience will be available at the top, where settled squads will produce an unrivalled on-field product, but it will be there for the fan elsewhere, too.
On a Saturday night, following Jose vs. Pep or Jose vs. the world, you can turn to Spain and tuck yourself in for Villarreal vs. Las Palmas—two clubs from places where most have never been; clubs surrounded by no drama but have passionate support; clubs who play some of the most attractive football in Europe; clubs who only produce an away kit for the occasions when they play each other.
Or you could get Granada vs. Sevilla, Paco Jemez vs. Jorge Sampaoli—two men who consider the D-word (defending) as one that should not be spoken of. When they meet, a scoreline of 6-5 is absolutely possible.
Other enjoyment will be found in derbies in Galicia and in Seville. Teams such as Malaga and Espanyol will also be intriguing following strong summers. And in the north, it will be hot in the Basque Country, which has five representatives this season.
Of course, the headliners will always draw you in—the Clasico, the Madrid derby—but in the coming season, La Liga will be place where you need to search a little deeper for its essence. Unlike the Premier League, it won't be so visible, not all there on the surface being projected into your eyes.
But there's joy to be found in that: The Premier League gives you one thing; La Liga gives you another.
Combine them, embrace them both, and you're in for a rich footballing experience.
