Last month, I wrote that, despite a bunch of their key players heading to greener pastures, Girona will remain competitive in La Liga.
Just to make things clear, I still believe that to be the case.
They have experienced what it’s like to be the top dogs and will no doubt have a chip on their shoulders every time they step on the pitch. Plenty of talent may have left, but the passion and pride to sustain the achievements of yesteryear will be difficult to eradicate.
However, I also firmly believe that their fans should temper otherworldly expectations.
Will they experience a sudden drop? Possibly, but probably won’t.
How about retaining a spot in the top four? We at SBOTOP have been discussing this matter, so let us tell you what we think.
Miracles don’t happen every day
Every football fan remembers what their initial reactions were when Leicester City finally clinched an improbable and near-impossible Premier League trophy back in 2016. It was a fairytale story, the likes of which we only see in books and on movie screens.
I’m also pretty sure a lot of people can look back on the sudden downfall the club had afterwards. And how quick it was to go from being the team to beat to mid-table purgatory.
One can attribute it to the fact that the Foxes’ best players were poached over the years and that Claudio Ranieri had lost the locker room in the season following their triumph. But the overlying message here is clear: A relatively small club will find it extremely hard to sustain a title challenge year in and year out.
That’s the clearest message I can send to fans expecting Girona to once more burst into the scene, bettering or maintaining their last year’s results.
Against the likes of Athletic Club, Real Betis, Real Sociedad and Sevilla, they can and will get results. Again, I’ve already said they can still compete—just not at the level they did last season.
It also doesn’t help their cause that those who aided their La Liga run last year have mostly deserted Estadi Montilivi. Yan Couto, Aleix Garcia and Savinho, all of whom have contributed much to the Catalan Club’s mega season, have now departed.
But the most notable loss will be felt in front, with Pichichi winner Artem Dovbyk leaving for Roma.
The 27-year-old striker was on a tear, displaying a tonne of La Liga 2024 highlights, and helping Girona score 85 goals the entire season—only champions Real Madrid scored more.
Aside from Girona upsetting the La Liga 2024 odds with their performance, Dovbyk’s goal-scoring prowess was also one that surprised spectators and analysts alike.
But they are now without these talents, although head coach Michel can surely make the newly-looked squad tick, as he did last year.
Fans, too, will be ecstatic and give their unwavering support—a just reward for a mighty accomplishment heading into the European stage for the first time in their history. They were there when times were rough, and there’s no way they’ll desert now.
La Liga’s ‘Big 3’ cannot be usurped
You may finish ahead of Real Madrid for one season, ahead of Barcelona and Atletico for a season as well. You can even beat a couple of them in one year. But getting ahead of these three-headed beasts at the same time is a pretty helpless task.
Ask yourself: when was the last time this was done? There’s a reason La Liga is a kingdom dominated by three kings, and the rest are left to feed off scraps. Girona finished ahead of Atletico by five points, and were behind Barcelona by four points. I’m afraid that’s the closest they’re going to get in attempting to win Spain’s top-flight league.
The new additions for each team are also telling; they intend to keep the title race between the three of them. Kylian Mbappe and Endrick for Madrid; Alexander Sorloth for Atletico, with Julian Alvarez on his way as well; and Dani Olmo is headed to his boyhood club in Barcelona.
There is also the new Champions League format, which will have teams play eight games in the group stages instead of six. For a club new to this occasion, I can see Girona having quite a few problems adjusting.
The bottom line is that the upcoming season will look different from what the Blanquivermells had last year. So, a word of advice: do not expect too much.
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