When all has been said and done, departures from La Liga clubs have had the strongest impact than arrivals. It doesn’t make the league as a whole look too great.Barcelona lost Lionel Messi, their best-ever player and were left with a huge gap. Real Madrid saw their highly successful centre-back partnership of Ramos and Varane leave for pastures new. And while the two biggest Spanish clubs had to be careful with their finances, it was Atletico Madrid and Villareal who splashed the most cash.Let’s take a look at comings and goings.BARCELONA – A tale of dilapidationFormer Barca president Josep Bartomeu put the club in dire straits with excessive spending. After selling Neymar to PSG, he threw away the money in a series of disastrous purchases. When Bertomeu’s successor Joan Laporta got into the office, his only option was to sell, sell and sell some more.Everyone knew that the Blaugrana was desperate to offload players to address club finances, so most clubs took advantage of it. Atletico are the prime example. Early in the transfer window, Atleti refused to do a straight swap of Joao Felix for Antoine Griezmann. They knew that the Catalans would get desperate. On the last day of the transfer window, they managed to snatch Griezmann on a season-long loan with an option to buy. And they still held on to the talented Felix.Barcelona were left without Messi and Griezmann, two players who scored 58 out of 122 team goals last season, but it had to be done. Those two players would have cost the club around $180 million in wages alone.Emerson Royal was dispatched to Tottenham, Junior Firpo has gone to Leeds, and Jean-Clair Todibo returned to France with Nice.A problem, however, is that many big earners have remained at Camp Nou when they aren’t even expected to play. Samuel Umtiti, Miralem Pjanic, Philippe Coutinho, Ousmane Dembele are still at the club, getting paid to train.Ansu Fati becomes Barca’s first non-South American ’10’ after two decadesThe arrivals of Eric Garcia, Sergio Aguero, Memphis and Luuk De Jong are not bad, but it’s no longer a world-class team.IN: Emerson Royal (Betis), Memphis (Lyon), Sergio Aguero (Manchester City), Eric Garcia (Manchester City), Yusuf Demir (Rapid Wien, loan)OUT: Antoine Griezmann (Atletico), Junior Firpo (Leeds United), Jean-Claire Todibo (Nice), Carles Alena (Getafe), Rey Manaj (Spezia, loan), Juan Miranda (Betis), Matheus (Palmeiras), Monchu (Granada), Trincao (Wolves, loan), Lionel Messi (PSG)ATLETICO DE MADRID – Improved attackIt was a fine window for the red and whites! Creative midfielder Rodrigo De Paul arrived from Udinese to add some flair and magic to the midfield, while Matheus Cunha and Griezmann arrive to complement Luis Suarez and improve Diego Simeone’s attacking options. Atleti looked like one of the favourites to land Fiorentina’s Serbian striker Dusan Vlahovic. Still, that option proved way too expensive with the Italian club determined to slap an unrealistic price tag on their best goalscorer. Simeone had to look elsewhere, so he got two players for less money.Another sellout at Camp Nou: Griezmann is back with Atletico Madrid!IN: Rodrigo De Paul (Udinese), Matheus Cunha (Hertha), Maros Paulo (Fluminense), Benjamin Lacomte (Monaco, loan), Antoine Griezmann (Barcelona, loan)OUT: Saul Niguez (Chelsea, loan), Nicolas Ibanez (Pachuca), Vitolo (Getafe, loan), Manu Sanchez (Osasuna, loan), Ivo Grbic (Lille, loan), Marcos Paulo (Farmalicao, loan), Neuen Perez (Udinese, loan), Santiago Arias (Granada, loan), Axel Werner (released)REAL MADRID – Lots of flexing without the final blowTheir number one target remained unattainable, but it’s not to say that Kylian Mbappe won’t join Real Madrid eventually. It looks like the groundwork has been done to prepare for Mbappe’s inevitable arrival next year.Kylian Mbappe’s transfer saga explained in a single sentenceLos Blancos president Florentino Perez secured Bayern’s star David Alaba on a free transfer early on. Despite allowing captain Sergio Ramos and fellow defender Raphael Varane to leave, the Madrid club seems to have a secure future with several first-teamers extending contracts in recent weeks. Attempts to sign PSG weren’t successful, but Real did manage to get one over the Parisians. Florentino completed the transfer of young Frenchman Eduardo Camavinga from Rennes, a player that was a PSG target for a while. The battle between traditional European powerhouse Real Madrid and new money Paris Saint-Germain is likely to last for years. But after round one, we’ll call it a draw.IN: David Alaba (Bayern), Eduardo Camavinga (Rennes)OUT: Raphael Varane (Manchester United), Martin Odegaard (Arsenal), Brahim Diaz (Milan, loan), Sergio Ramos (PSG), Tekefusa Kubo (Mallorca, loan), Alvaro Odriozola (Fiorentina, loan)SEVILLA – Reinforcements across the pitchGoalkeeper, left-back, right back, central midfield and attack – Sevilla have done the business. Shot-stopper Marko Dmitrovic was secured in January when he entered the last six months of his Eibar contract. Gonzalo Montiel and Ludwig Augustison have come from Argentina and Germany, respectively, to bolster full-back options and Tottenham Argentinean star Erik Lamela came to provide the spark in midfield. Wolverhampton forward Rafa Mir was signed to provide competition for lethal striker Youssef En-Nesyri, making it a complete transfer window for the Andalucian club.The most significant departure is that of Bryan Gil. A magically talented winger, who is considered as one of the top three youngsters in Spanish football, has moved to Tottenham and will test himself in the most competitive league in the world. Striker Luuk De Jong, who scored the winning goal in Sevilla’s 2020 Europa League final win over Inter, moved to Barcelona as a feeble replacement for Lionel Messi.IN: Rafa Mir (Wolves), Gonzalo Montiel (River Plate), Thomas Delaney (Borussia Dortmund), Ludwig Augustinson (Werder Bremen), Marko Dmitrovic (Eibar), Erik Lamela (Tottenham)OUT: Bryan Gil (Tottenham), Guillerme Arana (Atletico Mineiro), Sergi Gomez (Espanyol), Tomas Vaclik (Olympiacos), Franco Vasquez (Parma), Juan Soriano (Tenerife), Alex Vidal (Espanyol), Juan Berocal (Sporting Gijon), Ronny Lopes (Olympiacos), Sergio Escudero (released), Alejandro Pozo (Almeria), Luuk De Jong (Barcelona)La Liga’s wounds inflicted by Messi’s farewellVILLAREAL – Big spendersThe Yellow Submarine splashed a lot of money around this year. The Europa League holders brought in two players from England for a combined fee of $45 million. Dutch winger Arnaut Danjuma was signed from Bournemouth and defender Juan Foyth came from Tottenham. Senegalese striker Boulaye Dia was bought from Stade Reims in a $13.2 million deal to lift the club’s spending to a total of $60 million.IN: Arnaut Danjuma (Bournemouth), Juan Foyth (Tottenham), Boulaye Dia (Reims), Aissa Mandi (Betis)OUT: Ramiro Funes Mori (Al-Nassr), Mario Gonzalez (Braga), Enric Franquesa (Levante), Miguelon (Espanol), Carlos Bacca (Granada), Jaume Costa (Mallorca)THE REST – On tight budgetsThis is the section of the roundup where we’d like to tell you about some big transfers from other clubs, but in all reality – there isn’t much to talk about. Many free transfers and budget deals were done just to stay afloat and keep the books in check while the Covid pandemic is still taking its toll on clubs’ finance. But it’s not saying that other teams will be weaker this season – it’s just that money is tight.
