On Sunday night, Real Madrid all but secured a 36th La Liga title, further extending their record, by beating Barcelona 3-2 at Estadio Santiago Bernabéu.
The game was both thrilling and chaotic in equal measure, with Barça leading twice, thanks to Andreas Christensen and then Fermín López, only for Vinícius Júnior and Lucas Vázquez to hit-back both times.
Then, as had been the case at Montjuïc in October, Jude Bellingham popped up to fire home a stoppage time winner, sparking wild scenes of jubilation.
The Englishman is the first los Merengues player to score in their first two La Liga Clásicos since Ruud van Nistelrooy 17 years ago.
Meanwhile, this is the first time ever Barça have lost a league Clásico in which they led twice, meaning Xavi will depart as Blaugrana head coach in just six games time following a trophyless campaign.
On the flip side, with a Champions League semi-final against Bayern Munich to come, los Blancos are aiming to win the league title and European Cup in the same season for only the fifth time, after 1957, 1958, 2017 and 2022.
Carlo Ancelotti’s team have enjoyed a Clásico clean-sweep this season, beating Barcelona home and away in La Liga, while also hammering them 4-1 in January’s Supercopa de España Final in Riyāḍh.
This is the first time either side has enjoyed a 100% record in Clásicos across a single season (minimum three matches played) since 1935/36, when Real Madrid won all three back then too.
But this might just be the start of the new normal for Spanish football, with los Blancos well-placed to dominate for years to come.
The main reason for this, as with most aspects of modern football, is money.
Let’s first look at Real Madrid, who are already pretty good, despite the absence of a number nine, following Karim Benzema’s departure last summer, while goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois as well as first-choice centre-back pairing David Alaba and Éder Militão have all been sidelined due to ACL injuries.
Between that trio, they’ve made just 22 appearances this season; that’s 17 for Alaba, five for Militão and zero for the stricken Courtois.
At the other end of the field, Jude Bellingham has now scored 21 times in all competitions, having bagged stoppage time winners in both Clásicos, and without him they would not have been able to fill Benzema’s void.
This summer though, attacking reinforcements are on their way, with teenaged sensation Endrick set to arrive from Palmeiras in a deal worth €60 million, following his 18th birthday in July.
European supporters knew very little about him, but he very much announced himself back in March by scoring against both England at Wembley and then Spain at the Bernabéu during international friendlies.
However, good as he is, Endrick will not be the headline arrival, with Kylian Mbappé belatedly set to make the move over to the Spanish capital, two years later than first advertised.
It is very possible that Mbappé's last game for PSG could be in a Champions League Final against Real Madrid at Wembley on 1 June but, when he finally does make the move, he could make his new team unstoppable.
On the flip side, while their fiercest rivals are signing, arguably, the best player on the planet, it’ll be another summer of cost-cutting, palancas and trying to remain within La Liga’s financial rules for Barcelona.
Following the 5-3 home defeat to Villarreal on 27 January, Xavi announced that he would leave at the end of the season and, despite speculation over a potential U-turn, recent defeats to PSG and Real Madrid have extinguished this as a possibility.
As we wrote about at the time, it should not be forgotten that Xavi did a remarkable job last season, winning the La Liga title, doing so in difficult circumstances, so whoever his successor is will come into an impossible situation.
Right now, current Barça B boss Rafa Márquez is the favourite to take over this summer, partially because he would be the cheapest option, but also because all the top-class managers are choosing to go elsewhere, with Liverpool, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, possibly Manchester United, Juventus and others also in the market.
In terms of the playing squad, due to La Liga’s draconian financial rules, Barcelona will once again be required to reduce their wage bill, making the prospect of many if any big-money signings unlikely.
Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsí and others are still registered as youth team players, thereby keeping them off the wage bill, but that’ll have to change soon, if these superstars are to be properly remunerated.
When will Barça have to sell a prized La Masia graduate such as Lamine, Cubarsí, Pedri, Gavi, Fermín López or Alejandro Balde to balance the books, something they’ve been unwilling to do so far?
The last issue that epitomises the difference between these two gigantic clubs is that of their respective stadium renovations.
Real Madrid were proactive, upgrading the Bernabéu during Covid-times, thereby playing behind-closed-doors matches at Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano and losing out on little to no revenue.
On the flip side, Barcelona waited until the pandemic was over before demolishing Camp Nou, thereby forced to call Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys home this season.
Given that Montjuïc has half the capacity, and is located at the top of a hill, meaning many locals don’t want to make the trek, Barça’s average attendance this season has been 40,954, down from 83,498 last time round.
They’re aiming to move back into Camp Nou by December, but it’s very much an I’ll believe it when I see it situation, so it appears another campaign stuck at Montjuïc is on the cards, which is costing the club millions of Euros in potential revenue every matchday, with 25 men’s and two women’s fixtures having taken place at this temporary venue.
To summarise, we cannot see how Barcelona will be able to compete with Real Madrid in the coming seasons, making it all the more miraculous that Xavi’s side were champions last season, hence why we’re forecasting a period of dominance by a side from the capital.
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