Summer holidays

It’s a well-worn phrase - the league table doesn’t lie! Ok, Mikel Arteta may claim that Arsenal was the best team in the Champions League as he headed through the exit door, but there’s no disputing that the best team won La Liga.

Barcelona tied up the title with three games to go in the spectacular style that summed up their season. They put Real Madrid in their place, and that was very much second place.

Even though Carlo Ancelotti’s team took a two-goal lead in the final clásico of the season, Barcelona had reserves of energy and a fearless approach to sprint over the line. The 4-3 scoreline summed up the season.

Hansi Flick managed to find a way to harness the fragmented bunch of players he’d inherited at Barcelona. His best player is only 17; his best defender is 18; his top-scorer was reported as past it a year ago; and his goalkeeper was brought out of retirement. The German coach invented a way to play that encompassed the club’s traditional passing game, with a wild defensive strategy. It was daring and massively entertaining. There wasn’t a single player who didn’t perform to his absolute maximum.

Contrast that to Carlo Ancelotti’s task in Madrid. His jigsaw was impossible to piece together. This week, 12 players reported “not fit for duty” after losing to Barça. He’d played without his first choice back-four for most of the season and was down to his seventh-choice central defender. Saying that, Jacobo did score against Osasuna.

If it was a jigsaw, then Kylian Mbappé needed to be the central piece to work around. He couldn’t solve the puzzle; he gave it his all, but for once he didn’t have the answers and will pass the chalice over to Xabi Alonso.

Alonso inherits a dishevelled dressing room. The bodies are bruised and so are the egos. In normal times he’d spend a summer assessing the situation. This isn’t normal though. He must scrape them up from the floor, gather them onto a plane and head stateside for the inaugural Fifa Club World Cup. Just when they need a break from each other, they’ll be sharing hotel rooms as they go globe-trotting.

Only the moneymen at FC Barcelona will be envious. The $100m would be useful to solve some problems, but a summer off is far more useful on the footballing front. The teenage bodies require a rest; the veterans need a recharge; and the manager deserves a long lie down.

It’s already “advantage Barcelona” looking ahead to next season. Flick’s players will return refreshed and there’s little he needs to do to improve his team.

If, as expected, Alonso takes over, he doesn’t have any time. He needs to energise them for the summer competition, assess who stays and goes, work out the complex personalities and find a new formula.

It’s going to be a long summer for Alonso as Flick relaxes on a beach with a well-deserved stein of ice-cold German beer.