You can tell it’s international week in Spain because the sports papers are full of speculation about which players Real Madrid and Barcelona are going to sign for next season.

As usual the national side is taking a back seat to the interests of the country’s two big clubs and instead the biggest debate relating to “la selección” is whether or not former captain and record goal-scorer Raul should be recalled to the squad.

The Real Madrid striker is playing better than he did in the last couple of seasons but with David Villa and Fernando Torres the clear first-choices for Luis Aragones and Espanyol duo Luis Garcia and Raul Tamudo providing strong back-up options there is no room for the 30-year-old.

Aragones added fuel to the fire by his less than diplomatic comments about the striker’s effectiveness for the national team with his “What have Spain ever won when Raul has been in the team?” aside to an irate fan outside the team’s training base.

Predictably there was uproar at Aragones’s apparent slight on the Real Madrid icon from the Madrid-obsessed media, with calls for an official apology, then demands for a tribute for the player from the Spanish Federation.

No matter that Spain are on the verge of booking their place at Euro 2008 after a 3-1 win away to Denmark, it was Raul’s international future that dominated the headlines.

Spain defender Carlos Marchena expressed the team’s frustrations with his comments on the matter.

“Once again the debate has been kicked off. It doesn’t seem to matter that the team is playing well and things are calm and relaxed, everything has to be controversy and bad feeling. Instead of leaving us in peace and having some faith in the team they want to show the team is a disaster and that isn’t the case. If it goes on like this we’ll never be calm and we’ll never achieve anything.”

Is Marchena right? Is Spain just too obsessed with its clubs, and Real and Barcelona in particular, to ever cut the national side some slack?

Simon Baskett, Madrid

PHOTO: Real Madrid players Raul and Michel Salgado arrive for the match between Rafael Nadal of Spain and Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus during the Madrid Masters Series tennis tournament in Madrid October 17, 2007. REUTERS/Andrea Comas