Barcelona's new manager, Real Madrid's new stars - our La Liga season preview (2024)

La Liga’s new season kicks off on Thursday — and there have been plenty of developments since Real Madrid’s title last term.

Carlo Ancelotti’s side begin their defence on Sunday night when the Spanish and European champions travel to Mallorca. On Saturday, Barcelona and their new manager Hansi Flick get started at Valencia.

Here, we take a look at the season ahead…

Who do you think will win the title and why?

It’s very difficult to look past Real Madrid.

Carlo Ancelotti’s team won the trophy easily last year, finishing 10 points ahead of Barcelona despite easing up before the Champions League final, which they also won.

Madrid lost just once in 38 La Liga games. They were a level above even though goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and centre-backs Eder Militao and David Alaba missed most of the campaign through injury.

They have added a new galactico, Kylian Mbappe, and Brazilian 18-year-old star Endrick, so their attack should be much stronger.

Replacing Toni Kroos’ control in midfield will be a challenge, so there could be a new deeper playmaking role for Jude Bellingham, who had such a sensational goalscoring debut season in Spain.

So Ancelotti has some thinking to do but, barring any mishaps, the Italian will win the first back-to-back league titles of his long career.

And who will make up the rest of the top four?

Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid have always finished in La Liga’s top four since Diego Simeone’s first full season in charge of Atletico 12 years ago. As usual, the race will be to see who will join them.

Sevilla and Valencia are going through (quite long) transitional periods, so either finishing fourth would be a surprise. Villarreal’s experienced coach Marcelino Garcia Toral nabbed the spot when in charge of Valencia, but he needs a new goalscorer after Alexander Sorloth joined Atletico. Imanol Alguacil’s Real Sociedad have consistently overachieved in recent years, but they have lost key defender Robin Le Normand. Midfielder Mikel Merinocould soon follow.

Repeating last season’s top-four finish will be a huge challenge for Girona given the key players who have left this summer, and the exertions of a first Champions League campaign.

So last season’s Copa del Rey winners Athletic Bilbao look best placed. Keeping hold of Nico Williams, despite Barca’s interest in paying his €58million (£50m; $63m) release clause, was a huge boost. Barring distraction by the Europa League, with the final to be held at Bilbao’s San Mames next May, Ernesto Valverde’s side are a decent bet for this term’s ‘best of the rest’.

Which team will surprise us most?

Real Betis are often the most difficult to predict and they may have the highest potential to overachieve.

Manuel Pellegrini, 70, has done his best to impose some order on the historically mercurial Andalusian club, and they have assembled a squad full of talent and experience.

Enigmatic but injury-prone playmakers Isco and Nabil Fekir can help their side beat anyone on their day. Former Premier League players Pablo Fornals, Marc Roca and Diego Llorente feel more at home in the Betis environment. United States midfielder Johnny Cardoso is also well-settled.

Entering the title race is a lot to expect of Betis, but then few would have predicted Girona to be Madrid’s closest challengers over much of last season.

Who will be the biggest underperformers?

Barca’s financial woes are well-known, and they are again struggling this summer to register players with La Liga for the new campaign.

Barca also begin the new season with key defender Ronald Araujo injured, as well as midfielders Gavi, Pedri and Frenkie de Jong. Many other players know the club hierarchy want to sell them, which is never ideal for squad harmony. The team will play at least the first four months of the season at their unloved Montjuic temporary home while the Camp Nou continues its rebuild.

So it’s a huge challenge for new Barca coach Flick on many levels. If they get off to a bad start, the atmosphere around the club could be very difficult by the time the first Clasico of the season comes around (at the Bernabeu in late October).

How do you expect the promoted clubs to do?

Espanyol, Real Valladolid and Leganes have all been in Primera recently, and all three promoted clubs have foreign owners — Chinese businessman Chen Yansheng at Espanyol, former Brazilian great Ronaldo at Valladolid, and U.S. investors Blue Crow Sports at Leganes.

Leganes look to have the most stable project, with a data-driven approach adapted from club president Jeff Luhnow’s time in baseball, but they will also have the lowest budget of all 20 in La Liga. Finishing 17th and avoiding the drop would be seen as a success.

Valladolid and Espanyol are more difficult to predict, especially as Ronaldo and Chen appear open to selling their clubs should the right offer arrive. With money tight, both look likely to struggle, along with Rayo Vallecano, Celta Vigo and Las Palmas (where Scotland pair Scott McKenna and Ollie McBurnie could be in for a fun season).

Who will be the best young player this season?

Following his tremendous displays at the European Championship, where he celebrated his 17th birthday the day before Spain’s victory over England in the final, Lamine Yamal is the only real answer.

Yamal appeared to progress as a player even across the four weeks in Germany, adding extra elements to his game and looking every inch a world-class player and team leader already.

The challenge for everyone at Barcelona will now be managing his development, physically and mentally. La Masia has some cautionary tales over the years: teenagers such as Bojan Krkic and Ansu Fati did not fulfil the potential shown when they broke through to the first team.

The hope is that Yamal is given time and space to grow up without too much pressure on his shoulders so that he can develop at his own pace and fans of Barca and Spain (and neutrals) can enjoy his talents for the next decade or more.

Which under-the-radar player have big clubs been sleeping on?

Villarreal’s Alex Baena is a 23-year-old playmaker who has featured surprisingly little in this summer window’s transfer rumours.

A diminutive and technically excellent playmaker in the mould of David Silva or Santi Cazorla, Baena provided 18 assists in 42 games in La Liga and the Europa League last season, also chipping in with four goals.

That form earned him a place in Spain’s Euro 2024 squad, although he played just 25 minutes in two substitute appearances. He then went to the Olympics, where he was a leader of the team that beat hosts France in Friday’s final.

Under contract with Villarreal until 2028, Baena has a release clause of €60million, which could look very interesting to Premier League clubs if his progress continues.

Which team has had the best transfer window?

As in most recent summers, many La Liga clubs have been looking to wheel and deal to balance the books, and have been happy to accept big offers when they come in from abroad.

Villarreal sold goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen to Chelsea for €20million and defender Jorge Cuenca to Fulham for €7m. Betis sold young centre-back Chadi Riad to Crystal Palace, with Riad’s former club Barcelona sharing part of the €15m fee. Sevilla’s senior centre-forward Youssef En-Nesyri was sold to Besiktas for €19.5m. Osasuna’s best defender David Garcia went to Al-Rayyan in Qatar for €10m. Celta Vigo’s top scorer last season Jorgen Strand Larsen has moved on loan to Wolves.

A surprise exception was Atletico, who on Monday confirmed the signing of World Cup-winning Argentina forward Julian Alvarez from Manchester City for €95million, adding to completed moves for centre-forward Sorloth from Villarreal and centre-back Le Normand from Real Sociedad. They also have a deal lined up to bring in midfielder Conor Gallagher from Chelsea.

While there are still concerns about squad balance in Simeone’s side, and especially a lack of depth in defence, Atleti fans are pretty excited about the new season now.

Which team has had the worst transfer window?

As so often happens to smaller clubs who have a breakout overachieving season, Girona have lost many of their best players to bigger teams this summer.

Being part of the City Football Group has made it more difficult for Girona to control the situation. Flying winger Savinho moved to Manchester City, who also sanctioned a loan move for his fellow young Brazilian Yan Couto to Borussia Dortmund. Eric Garcia returning to Barcelona weakens the defence, midfielder Aleix Garcia joining Bayer Leverkusen removes a key playmaker, and last season’s La Liga top scorer Artem Dovbyk was sold to Roma.

Some interesting players have arrived at Montilivi. Abel Ruiz, now 24, has performed well for Spain’s youth teams and joins from Braga. Czech Republic Euro 2024 defender Ladislav Krejci and another highly rated centre-back Alejandro Frances, 22, from Zaragoza have also signed, while Bryan Gil and Donny van de Beek are aiming to relaunch careers that stalled in the Premier League.

Coach Michel worked wonders last year, but given Girona also face the challenge of a first season of Champions League football, domestically they look likely to finish mid-table at best.

What’s the one match we should really look out for in the opening few weeks of the season?

Mbappe’s presentation as a Real Madrid player at the Bernabeu in July was a special moment for fans, and the stadium will be packed again on August 25 for Mbappe’s home debut as a Madrid player.

The Frenchman’s long-expected arrival at the Bernabeu has generated a huge amount of excitement and expectation among Madrid fans, while there is also a lot of interest in how coach Carlo Ancelotti will fit Mbappe into his team alongside Vinicius Junior, Bellingham, Rodrygo and Endrick.

Ancelotti invented a new tactical setup last season to help Bellingham settle quickly into the team, and the Italian will have something similar planned for Mbappe. Watching how it all settles down through the first weeks of the season should be fascinating.

Tell us one great storyline involving La Liga we might have missed over the summer…

Spanish football never usually lacks characters, so the announcement this summer of a new fictional drama series set in the world of La Liga is pretty intriguing.

Hunger Games actor Josh Hutcherson is involved in the project, as is Spanish rapper C Tangana.

It’s all part of La Liga’s shift under the presidency of Javier Tebas, expanding to becoming a content provider — competing with Netflix and Amazon Prime, as well as the Premier League and Serie A.

Give us your boldest prediction for the season…

Barcelona to be looking for another head coach by the winter break.

Flick is coming into a hugely difficult situation, a new league, and a new language.

Barca are a unique club, due to the famous ‘entorno’ of ex-players, media pundits and former club directors. Even former players such as Xavi and Pep Guardiola, who in theory know the situation really well, have found the pressure difficult to handle.

Many Catalan fans and pundits are still upset at how predecessor Xavi was fired by president Joan Laporta at the end of last season, and Laporta’s ‘levers’ financial policy is coming under increasing scrutiny.

Flick’s outsider status could turn out to be an advantage. If results are good he can just ignore any external noise. But if the team starts to struggle, the pressure will be enormous, and the German may find he has few defenders on the local scene.

(Top photo: Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)