New seasons lunge into action with vigour and excitement, and the old fade into antiquity; such is the speed of time in football. The finale of that past age was a year kneecapped by exhaustion visible in the legs and minds of players, even up to the eyes of the fans. There was barely time to close off the sentimental balance sheet before transfers invaded the news cycle—one that only finished on the 19th of June in Spain.
Girona had just 54 days to make their plans after they found out they would take part in La Liga, having sneaked under the dropping steel door between the Primera and the Segunda. What was gained and what was lost?
In La Liga’s case, the ascetic answer to the latter is Alavés, Granada, and Levante.
Those clubs and their fans came towards the end of their existential summer of introspection. Presidents fought through months of messy trial by opinion. In Granada’s case, that arrived after a shock—nobody really thought that the 2021 Europa League quarter-finalists would descend as rapidly as they rose. To suggest that the neutral fan in La Liga will mourn the loss of Alavés and Levante is a little hyperbolic, but there might be a fleeting pang of regret that Los Granotas are no longer in the first division.