Athletic Bilbao
ItâÂÂs been a lousy summer so far for Athletic. Fernando Llorente was an outcast in SpainâÂÂs Euros victory and the club's other big hitters, Javier MartÃÂnez, Iker Muniain and Ander Herrera, are set to be away for much of the summer with the Spanish Olympic side.
Perhaps more importantly, thereâÂÂs still no guarantee that Marcelo Bielsa will stay on despite signing a new deal, after a typically mad moment in which the Argentinian had a bust-up with a construction crew chief over delays to work on AthleticâÂÂs training facilities â a turf war, if you will. The altercation didn't go down at all well with the bosses in Bilbao: a battle of words is still rumbling on via media statements.
Atlético Madrid
ItâÂÂs been a lousy summer so far too for Atlético Madrid, but only for the playing staff: they're being rudely awoken at 7.15 every morning by a pan-hitting Diego Simeone for three gruelling sessions per day at the clubâÂÂs training camp to the north of Madrid.
The club have made around â¬6m profit by selling another youth team product, Alvaro DomÃÂnguez to Borussia Mönchengladbach, and replacing the stopper with Getafe's creaky nut-job Cata DÃÂaz. The club now have to work out what to do with returning loanees Raúl GarcÃÂa, Diego Costa, Jorge Pulido and Joel in what is set to be a busy summer of moving and shaking at the Vicente Calderón.
Barcelona
The season hasnâÂÂt even begun and already Barcelona arenâÂÂt happy bunnies due to the official pardoning of José MourinhoâÂÂs eye-poke â apparently, further proof of Real MadridâÂÂs increasingly cosy relationship with the Spanish FA. Elsewhere, Barça wonâÂÂt be repeating last summerâÂÂs mistake of whopping globe-trotting tours and will instead be based in Spain, bar a series of friendlies in Germany, Morocco, France, Sweden and Romania.
As for transfers, thereâÂÂs been one big player in and one out so far with Jordi Alba joining and Seydou Keita slinking off. With another â¬26m left in the kitty plus anything scrabbled together from sales, there will be more moves to come â although a reportedly desired bid for Javi MartÃÂnez might be a little steep for the Catalan club.
Betis
Fee-fi-fo-fum, the blog smells the blood of an Englishman. Well, the blog thought it smelt the blood of an Englishman when it read that Betis had signed ArsenalâÂÂs Joel Campbell on loan. Then if found out the forward is from Costa Rica, sending LLL back to its corner to await the next Jermaine Pennant to head to Spanish shores.
Another new recruit to the Betis world is winger Juan Carlos, who joins from Braga via Zaragoza and originally Real Madrid â another of the type of transfers trailblazed by Atlético Madrid, where nobody is actually too sure who owns the fella in the first place.
Celta Vigo
Not a great deal going on in Galicia at the moment with Celta happy to wait until August's cheap scraps for their transfer market moves. However, the Primera new boys have ensured that they have a decent keeper by signing Sevilla's Javi Varas, whose place between the sticks was under threat with the arrival of Diego López from Villarreal.
It seems like Vigo is going to be a happier environment for the keeper who wasnâÂÂt the best of friends with Andrés Palop at the Sánchez Pizjuán. âÂÂEveryone knows my relationship with Andrés has not been good for some time. I donâÂÂt know the reasons, it changed very quickly,â admitted CeltaâÂÂs new arrival, who then hinted that starting in the side ahead of the veteran captain for parts of last season may have been the root cause.
