@DonAndres i think ur having a case of a slight Basque bias.
If Sociedad qualify for CL i see them struggling to juggle two competitions like Betis, Villareal. They dont have enough depth to cope.
On the other hand Valencia are much more suited to and experienced in CL not to mention they need it more to pay off their debt.
You want Valencia to be more competitive but dont want them to qualify for CL which may force them to sell players like Soldado etc to pay off debt :eusa_think:
You want Valencia to break the La Liga Duopoly when Barca/Real have more than 10 times their budget. That's not an easy task. You want them to fight to the death but how do you motivate players to give their all when they know Barca/Real have too much depth and money
Valencia have done pretty well considering the financial mismanagement(building a new stadium by selling players seriously?) and the sale of their best players.
I like Valverde and hope he does well and makes smart decisions.
Atletico have been lucky in having great players like Falcao, Turan etc and a good coach not to mention good debt management. I hope for them to do well and use the 60m from Falcao to strengthen the squad so that La Liga is more competitive
Unless a new TV deal is done, Spanish economic crises abates and Barca/Real give up their stranglehold over the league i dont see the duopoly going away any time soon.
Haha I always have Basque bias but preferably towards Bilbao, not huge rivals. Me applauding Sociedad is being objective and happy for a small club being so successful.
There's no doubt that Valencia are far more experienced and more likely to do better in the CL than Sociedad. Actually I'd probably let go of my initial argument remembering that this Sociedad side won't grow as much anymore with Montanier leaving next season along with the possible departures of Vela and Martinez.
Valencia have done admirably for losing all those players in always qualifying for the CL but they haven't made much of it (much like Arsenal). In past years they are obviously hindered by the debt and financial situation but they haven't been able to go the extra mile and truly push the expectations people had of them to try to break the duopoly.
Atletico held Real at bay in the CDR and for a good portion of the year remained 2nd in the league. Sociedad made an unbelievable run to nearly claim a 4th place spot when no one would've tipped them to be nearly as high, giving Barca their first league loss in the process. Malaga were unbelievably close to making it to the semifinals of the CL in their very first year in the competition, until they tragically fell to Dortmund in the final minutes. Those are examples of liga teams showing ambition to compete with the best. They all have worse financial situations than Valencia yet have showed the ambition to advance. Valencia have been solid, yet unspectacular. And to break the duopoly, a team needs to expand in a very spectacular fashion at a high rate.
Valverde seems like a smart guy, so we'll see how he does in the CL next season with Valencia. Maybe they'll go farther in the tournament and get sparked to grow as a club and challenge domestically as well. For them it really depends on whether the manager stays and the club can remain stable while growing. That means fighting to keep talents, being clever in the transfer market, having tactical advantages to work better as a unit rather than focus on player quality, and of course have undying discipline and motivation to go for the impossible. It's not an easy task but the question is do they have the balls to pursue it?
Atletico is one club who really does have a chance of breaking the duopoly soon enough. In Simeone they have an innovative, young, and loyal manager who is keen to improve this team greatly. Their youth academy is excellent producing starlets such as Koke, Niguez, Oliver Torres, and Manquillo. While Falcao might be leaving, Simeone is really focused to spread that money into increasing overall squad depth and growing players. Leo Baptistao is pretty much confirmed, Yilmaz is another rumor, along with Suarez. With a higher league position and CL revenues coming in, plus the funds from the CDR victory Atletico are really decreasing their debt and becoming a bigger club. Seriously I cannot reiterate enough how much the Champions League will benefit them. In 11/12 when Atletico
won the Europa league they got a measly 7 million euros. That same year when Man United crashed out in the group stages of the CL, they got 16 million. That's how big of a gap there is between the European competitions and that is the increase in profits Atletico are looking at. If they go to the quarterfinals of the CL, they'll get a good 25-30 million right there. And there is a new TV deal coming around 2014 with slightly more equitable distribution. I'm excited for this club. Ambitious and have the capabilities to really rise up in European dominance.
There are other clubs that have the motivation to break the duopoly. Athletic are producing great cantera products every year and would do much better under a great new manager (hopefully Caparros). Betis have a new project Heliopolis where by 2016, 60% of their squad will be made up of youth products and they'll be in European competition. There are many other clubs that could/might be on the rise as well. It's all about ambition to get to the top against the odds, something Valencia are currently lacking in.
