Pining for a Depor.

In Phil Ball’s quite excellent book on Spanish football“Morbo” he uses the story of a young Galician women who upon being asked by a TV crew wither she felt sorry for the incessant rain that was pouring down an the rest of Spain replied simply “Que se jodan” translation: “F*** them”. The rest of Spain were outraged at the woman’s crass reply but were also amused by the typical Galician sprit. That was in the summer of 2002 when Deportivo La Corunna regularly thumbed their nose at the perennial powers in Spanish football; Barcelona and Real Madrid. Depor had won La Liga in 2000 having challenged for it consistently before then. Javier Irureta, the man who makes Avram Grant look like a jester led Depor to the championship, Kings Cup and the quarter-final of the champions league in a glittering three year period punctuated by the brilliance of Juan Carlos Valeron. Now a mere seven years later Valeron still plays for Depor, he still sprays those passes but like his club he is a fading force.

For Depor, read Villareal or Valencia. The top table in Spain used to be able to accommodate more than Barca and Madrid. But it seems, no longer. The chastening chasm between the big two and the rest appears to be widening even greater this summer. Take a look at the starting eleven of Spain’s victorious team in the final. Three Madrid, seven Barca. One Villareal. It is an apt indicator of where the power lies.

Sando Rosell, the new Barca president confirmed last week that the club had to take out a huge loan to ensure they could meet their wage payments. Of course the loan was never in question, Catalan banks are only too happy to help their standard-bearer but consider that Valencia, who are in dire financial straits had to sell David Silva to Manchester City and David Villa to…..Barca. Madrid financed their splurge last season on the back of bank loans, all this despite the fact that both enjoy a far greater share of the T.V money than anyone else. In another fine book “Why England lose” Simon Kuper argues that the normal fan is happy with the status quo. Happy that say Man United win the league every other year as long as its competitive and there is drama.

That is no longer the case in Spain. Rafael Benietez’s Valencia were the last to really split the big two but that is not likely to happen again. Not as long as any bright youngster such as Sergio Canales is whisked away to Madrid at seventeen. Not as long as money remains a monopoly plaything to Barca. Not as long as television money is not distributed fairly.

So I am left hoping for someone, somewhere to thumb their nose at those two. As the Galician lady said “F*** them”. It never seems to rain on them.