Barcelona and Real Madrid: Is Their Greed Killing Spanish Football?

With the weekend over and the World Cup getting closer by the day, it looks like we might get a bit of a break from the Cesc to Barcelona stories, for a while anyway.

Although, if Cesc is still an Arsenal player when the Spanish squad gets together, I'm sure that he will get an ear full from the Barcelona contingent. Telling him how great a club they are and how it would be great to have him back where they think he belongs.

By now, you will know my feelings on Barcelona, and I don't need to repeat them but, I will say that Arseblog linked a very good article last week about the state of the finances in Spanish football.

The top two clubs negotiate their own TV deals and take most of the revenue available, leaving the other 18 clubs with very little to make from the TV rights.

It would seem that the other teams are struggling financially and are eager to do a similar deal to the one in England which gives a fairly even distribution of the money.

However, Barcelona and Real Madrid are determined to go their own way and keep as much money from TV as possible to themselves. 

This has led to a much less competitive league, and a host of Spanish teams are in financial difficulty.

Mallorca finished fifth in their league this season but they are going into the Spanish equivalent of administration quite a few clubs are paying more in wages than their overall income.

It's a lesson for the English clubs that they should continue with the current style of TV deals where they negotiate as a whole and not have some teams break away and negotiate on their own.

If the top two Spanish teams have as easy a league campaign as they had this season can it be good for their hopes in the Champions League. 

I made that point elsewhere, but a Barcelona fan countered that it wasn't a decline in overall Spanish standards, but that the top two were just so good that the others couldn't keep up.

That may be true, but if so, why did Real Madrid go out in the last 16 of the Champions League and why did Barcelona lose to an Inter Milan team who showed up their defensive frailties.

If their league was more competitive the chances are that they might have been able to raise their games to the level required as they would have been used to playing at that level on a more regular basis.

I know the teams who came first and second in the Premier league were a little worse this season than last, but the overall standard of the league improved and there are now seven or eight teams who are playing at a high level, which can only be good for the league.

The Premier League has been the best league in Europe for a few years now, and the decline of Chelsea, "Manure" and Liverpool might change that. I think the emergence of an overall more competitive league might just give the league back it's edge.

From an Arsenal perspective, we don't have to change too much to reach the top of the pile again, but I think that the most important element is keeping Cesc at the club.

We have signed a new striker which should increase the strength of our attack but we are all waiting for the signings that are really needed.

When a top class goalkeeper and a new central defender to replace the departing Gallas are signed, we will have a team capable of improving on the season that just finished. 

If those players are experienced internationals who are leaders on the pitch, it will make the difference that we need and with our new striker coming in on a free transfer it means that our transfer budget is still intact.

Surely we could get those two players for €30 million and although I would love some top class cover for Song, I would settle for those two players if that was all that we got for our money. 

There are a whole host of players linked with us again, with Mertesacker, Melo, Silva, Gourcuff and Gomis being mentioned today, although it's not the first time for any of them.

Another player mentioned is Arteta.  I have been an admirer of his for a long time. I would like to see how well he would do alongside Cesc rather than instead of him on our team. He would certainly add a lot to our dead ball execution.

Added to that rumour, there is also one saying that Barcelona are after Eboue again. He would be an ideal signing for them because he's a defender who isn't really that great at defending, and he would fit in with the rest of their defence.