Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Atletico Madrid are the big three names of La Liga. Those teams have the strongest brands, name value, and financial benefits.
What about the rest? Well the rest may not be financially strong but there are plenty of exciting teams and teams that may be in for turbulent seasons.
Today, we’ll be talking about two teams poised for shockingly good seasons and two poised for shockingly bad seasons.
Celta de Vigo
First, we start off with a team that could be in for an amazing season. Celta already had a stellar 24/25 season finishing seventh in the league and making Europa League football. They have brought back Borja Iglesias and Ilaix Moriba on permanent deals and have bought Ferran Jutgla from Club Brugge and Bryan Zaragoza from Bayern Munich
They were good to end the season and were playing some very good football, scoring the 5th most goals in the league last year. They reinforced well in the attack and could see them pushing for that fourth place spot.
Espanyol
Now we talk about a team that could be heading towards a bad season. Espanyol weren’t world beaters by any stretch of the imagination last year.
They finished 14th in the league and just two points from the drop.
They heavily relied on heroics from goalkeeper Joan Garcia who has now gone to cross-town rivals FC Barcelona.
Marko Dmitrovic is a decent keeper but won’t be anywhere near the level of Joan Garcia. Espanyol will have to hope their overall squad is better than last season otherwise I could see them facing the drop.
Valencia
A sleeping giant in Spain may be having a mini resurrection. They had an awful start to the season last year, winning just two games heading into the Christmas break. Then, they brought in manager Carlos Corberan and won nine games in the second half of the season, even getting a win in the Bernabeu.
They have lost Cristhian Mosquera and Giorgi Mamaradashvili which are big players to lose, but the rest of the team is decent with players like Javi Guerra, Pepelu, Diego Lopez, and Hugo Duro.
They appear poised to go from 12th to fighting for a European spot.
Real Betis
A team who had a great season last year could be looking at a rough season ahead. Real Betis were very strong last year with Isco being outstanding again, Antony finding a run of form on loan at Betis, and Johnny Cardoso being a stand out midfielder last year.
Now, Isco will miss the first few months of the season, they haven’t found a deal to bring Antony back, and Johnny Cardoso was sold to Atletico Madrid.
They already struggled last year when Isco was out and now they’ve lost pieces that could’ve helped them in his absence. Betis could be in for another bad start and could potentially drop out of European places this season.
