It is has already been dubbed the league title no one wants to win and with its succession of mishaps, slip-ups, fall-outs and injuries, this season’s Primera Liga plot has taken more twists than even the most low-budget Spanish afternoon soap opera.

Leaders and defending champions Real Madrid appear to be caught in a dangerous downward spiral, losing five of their last eight league matches, while Barcelona are struggling to take advantage of their arch-rivals’ errors.

Although they closed to within four points of Real at the top of the table after their flattering 4-1 win over Valladolid at the weekend, the Catalans have won just one of their last four games and continue to look unsettled and nervy when they take to the pitch.

Real, meanwhile, managed to pluck defeat from the jaws of victory against Valencia, losing out thanks to an 89th minute breakaway goal from former Atletico Madrid forward Angel Arizmendi.

Marca’s leading football correspondent Santiago Segurola described the match as an example of a new footballing genre called “epicomedia” - an unexpected reaction caused by a mixture of the epic and the comic.

The epic element came from Real’s frantic attempts to win the game by throwing everyone forward and peppering the Valencia goal with shots in the final 10 minutes. The comedy came from their defending, with Fabio Cannavaro conceding an unnecessary penalty and badly misjudging his attempt to stop Arizmendi before he snatched the win.

Barca should be rubbing their hands in delight at Real’s predicament, but instead they are suffering their own crisis of confidence. Defeat in the semi-finals of the King’s Cup at the hands of Valencia, speculation about a possible fall-out between Rijkaard and Ronaldinho, the absence through injury of Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry’s failure to settle and continued defensive frailty mean that the Catalans appear as vulnerable as Real.

The weaknesses of the top two should have thrown the door open to more challengers, but of all the other possible contenders only Villarreal have managed to stay in the title race.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side are on a four-match winning streak, but they hardly set the world alight with their late 2-1 win at basement side Levante on Sunday.

The league title is there for the taking, but who will eventually triumph - an anxious Real, an unhinged Barcelona or an unfancied Villarreal?

PHOTO: Real Madrid’s Pepe gestures during their defeat by Valencia at the Bernabeu, March 23, 2008. REUTERS/Juan Medina

Spain’s likely performance at Euro 2008 remains an enigma but one thing that can be guaranteed is that Luis Aragones will step down as coach at the end of the tournament.

The grand old man of Spanish football has made it clear that he will be going at the end of June, a month before his 70th birthday, and after four turbulent years at the helm there will many who will be heaving a sigh of relief.

The atmosphere in Spanish football is tense enough without having a figure like Aragones as its most high-profile international representative. From the moment he took charge after the last European Championship, he has never been far away from controversy. From his derogatory comments about Thierry Henry, to his intermittent threats to quit, his decision to exclude Raul or his tendency to fly off the handle during news conferences, Aragones has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Brusque, outspoken and at times inadvertently comic, Aragones comes from the same mould as two recent predecessors Jose Antonio Camacho and Javier Clemente. But the word is that after his departure, the Federation will appoint former Real Madrid coach Vicente del Bosque.

While Aragones resembles a bad-tempered, somewhat eccentric grandfather, Del Bosque is like a kindly uncle, a model of diplomacy, politeness and sportsmanship.

The moustachioed 57-year-old also oversaw his former club during their most successful period since the late 1950s. In a little over three years, he steered his team to two Champions Leagues, two league titles, the World Club Cup, the European Super Cup and the Spanish Super Cup.

Florentino Perez’s decision to discard Del Bosque the day after the team won the league title in 2003 and a week after they signed David Beckham is widely seen as one of the prime reasons for the galactico meltdown that followed. Whereas Del Bosque managed to control a dressing room packed full of the biggest egos in the game with disarming ease, a string of successors were driven to distraction by the challenge. And the club did not win another trophy until Fabio Capello arrived on the scene four years later.

Del Bosque does, of course, have his critics. Perez said his methods were too old-fashioned and hinted that his dry, deadpan delivery and stoical Castilian image did not fit into his plans to develop the club’s global image. His only subsequent coaching job at Besiktas ended in failure and he has displayed little enthusiasm to renew his career at a club.

On the other hand you will never hear a bad word said against Del Bosque by any of his former players or colleagues and he is widely respected in the game. The Spanish Federation’s sporting director Fernando Hierro, who was purged from Real at the same time as Del Bosque, is reported to be the driving force behind the decision to appoint him.

Could Del Bosque’s safe pair of hands be just what Spain now needs?

PHOTO: Del Bosque parades the European Cup back in Madrid after Real’s final victory over Bayer Leverkusen in 2002. REUTERS/Sergio Perez

It is difficult to exaggerate just how big a blow it is for Real Madrid to stumble out of the Champions League in the first knockout round for a fourth year in a row. The club measures its success not in terms of league titles but of its nine European Cups and yet another failure in the continent’s elite competition will take a heavy toll.

At the end of last season, Real president Ramon Calderon sacked Fabio Capello after the Italian ended the club’s four-year trophy drought by bringing the league title to the Bernabeu. The reason Calderon gave for the decision was that Capello’s team had failed to excite the fans with their style of football and had disappointed in Europe.

Few could argue with the Real supremo’s decision while the side were riding high in the league and still in with a chance of winning a 10th European crown. Only a few weeks ago, Calderon said Real had “the best squad in the world”, that there was “no room for Kaka in this team” and that the team was “playing like a machine”.

Since then Real have been knocked out of the King’s Cup, had their lead in the league sliced from nine points to five and been ousted from the Champions League by a ruthlessly efficient Roma. They have lost five of their last seven matches in all competitions.

The team’s over-reliance on keeper Iker Casillas and striker Ruud van Nistelrooy has become all too apparent, while their inconsistent performances in midfield and at the back are a cause of real concern.

To make matters worse coach Bernd Schuster has fallen out with the media.

The German’s sarcastic responses in news conferences, his criticisms of referees, and a recent walk-out after a league match in Huelva have won him few friends and many in the media are busy sharpening their knives.

Schuster responded to a question from one journalist on Wednesday about how he felt after the team’s elimination from the King’s Cup and the Champions League, by glaring at the reporter and saying, “Me, I feel fine.” Asked for his view on the match he replied, “For me it was not a defeat. We deserved to go through.”

Those responses are hard to fathom. Real were comprehensively outplayed by a sharper, hungrier Roma side at the Bernabeu. They may be good enough to win the Primera Liga again this season, but that won’t be enough for the weary fans I saw streaming out of the stadium before the final whistle on Wednesday.

All of which brings me to my final point.

For some years now the Primera Liga has laid claim to the title of best league in the world. Real and Barcelona’s victories in the Champions League and their clubs’ performances in the UEFA Cup provided strong support for their assertion. But this time round they have only one side in the last 16 of the UEFA Cup and for the second season in a row they have just one team in the last eight of the Champions League.

The favoured Spanish style of slow, patient build-up play has passed its sell-by date. Too many players and coaches confuse possession with danger, while opponents who play on the break are criticised as if they were adopting some sort of underhand tactic. Few Primera Liga sides possess the pace, verve and dynamism of sides like Roma, Arsenal and Manchester United. Surely they will have to change before they can reclaim their place amongst the continental elite?

PHOTO: Real Madrid keeper Iker Casillas reacts during the Champions League defeat by Roma, March 5, 2008. REUTERS/Susana Vera

You may remember a post I did on Lionel Messi’s habit of emulating goals from the footballing greats.

Last season the lank-haired Barcelona forward added his own versions of Maradona’s World Cup double against England in 1986 and Zidane’s Champions League winning volley to his collection.

Well, he’s done it again according to Spanish sports daily Marca. His decisive strike in his side’s 3-2 win over Celtic on Wednesday was, they say, a copy of one of Ferenc Pukas’s classic efforts in Hungary’s legendary 6-3 demolition of Wembley in 1953.

I’ve looked at both and there is little doubt that Puskas’s the better goal. The build-up is fantastic - even if the players look as though they are moving in slow motion - and anyone who can produce that sort of close control with a ball that had all the characteristics of a sack of potatoes deserves huge credit.

It’s true the Messi drag-back that beats Celtic defender Lee Naylor is reminiscent of the Hungarian’s footwork when he floors Billy Wright. But instead of wallowing in nostalgia I’m just going to sit back and look forward to Messi’s next goal. Maybe he’ll start taking requests.

PHOTO: Messi celebrates his second goal at Celtic Park, February 20, 2008. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne

When the Barcelona sports press pluck an impossible sounding idea from out of nowhere it’s not always wise just to chuckle and turn the page.

No one believed it when Sport newspaper floated the possibility of Louis van Gaal returning to Barca in 2002, yet a couple of months later, after the fans had got used to the idea, the Dutchman was starting an ill-fated second spell.

Could the same thing be happening with Jose Mourinho, who is currently getting the rehabilitation treatment in the Catalan media?

With the battle to wrest the league title from arch-rivals Real Madrid seemingly a lost cause, a host of leading players failing to live up to their billing and a series of increasingly pedestrian performances on the pitch, Barcelona are already thinking about next season.

They still have a chance of claiming any one of three major trophies, but unless they manage to overhaul Real and win the league or clinch a third European Cup no one seriously seems to believe that Frank Rijkaard will remain at the Nou Camp next season.

So who should step into the Barcelona hot seat?

A year ago, Juande Ramos was one of the favourites, but his multi-million move to Spurs seems to have scuppered that plan. Inevitably, given their history of Dutch coaches, Rijkaard’s former AC Milan colleague Marco van Basten has also been talked about as a likely candidate although interest in the Netherlands boss appears to have faded.

Given Barça’s desire to be seen as the guardians of the beautiful game Arsene Wenger is the connoisseur’s choice, but the name that comes up most frequently is that of Mourinho.

The Portuguese, who first came to notice when he was Bobby Robson’s assistant at the Nou Camp in the 1996-97 season, has undergone a remarkable metamorphosis from traitorous hate-figure to prodigal son in the space of the last 12 months.

Vilified as the architect of the “anti-football” that allowed Chelsea to dump Barça out of the Champions League three seasons ago, despised for his accusations that Rijkaard tried to pressurise referee Anders Frisk, scorned because of his criticisms of Lionel Messi’s play acting and ridiculed for his old job as Robson’s translator, Mourinho is now viewed in some quarters as the club’s saviour.

But if Rijkaard does go, would the Portuguese really be the right man to replace him? Shouldn’t Barça try to tempt Wenger away from his young charges at Arsenal instead? Or should they look to continue the Dutch connection and go for Van Basten?

And if the squad really needs to be whipped into shape is there anyone out there in favour of a third spell for Van Gaal*?

PHOTO: Van Gaal and his then assistant Mourinho watch their Barca team play Real Sociedad, May 14, 2000. REUTERS/Gustau Nacarino.

* Follow the link for a nice look at the parallel lives of Van Gaal and Mourinho.

Spanish football fans either love him or hate him. For some he is a temperamental, fly-by-night midfielder, a jack of all trades and master of none, a player who has paid as much attention to his hair style as David Beckham but has failed to become a media hit.

For others he is Spain’s nearest equivalent to Zinedine Zidane, a visionary playmaker who is capable of unlocking the best defences with an almost limitless repertoire of passes, a midfielder who has been consistently undervalued by both club and country, a product of the Real Madrid youth teams who paid the price for the club’s Galactico transfer policy.

Last year Real president Ramon Calderon even described him as “an eternal promise who has never really counted and remains a promise at the age of 31,” when he let slip his opinions about the player in a speech to a group of university students.

But whatever your opinion there is little doubt that Jose Maria Gutierrez, or “Guti” as he is universally known, is in the form of his life at Real this season. He scored two and had a hand in five more during the 7-0 demolition of Valladolid on Sunday.

Guti has flourished under the expert guidance of Real boss Bernd Schuster, another cultured and controversial  blond-haired midfielder whose international career was inexplicably short-lived.

In Guti, Schuster seems to have identified a kindred spirit and his handling of him has brought the best out of the local-born midfielder. Adjusting his role depending on the opposition, the German has alternated between playing him in the starting line-up and using him as a second-half substitute to exploit the spaces when their rivals begin to tire.

Although the indiscipline that plagued his early career has occasionally flared this season, Guti is a far more focused and determined than before and finally looks to have gained the sort of confidence he needs to perform at his best.

So far Luis Aragones has resisted the pressure to recall Guti to the national side, but with Spain still struggling to break down opposition defences surely there is space for the Real Madrid midfielder in the squad for Euro 2008?

Simon Basket, Madrid

PHOTO: Real Madrid´s Guti celebrates a goal in the 7-0 win over Valladolid Feb. 10 REUTERS/Susana Vera

I bet Spain coach Luis Aragones wishes he only had to worry about whether to give David Beckham a run-out for his 100th cap.

After an impressive end to qualification for Euro 2008, Aragones probably thought he’d have just a little fine-tuning to do ahead of the tournament in Austria and Switzerland.

Instead, the 69-year-old is likely to be juggling names like Albelda, Guti, Raul and Navarro in his head as he tries to solve a host of unexpected selection puzzles before announcing the squad for next week’s friendly against France

The first (and easiest) question is whether he should he call up Barcelona prodigy Bojan Krkic to prevent possible overtures from Serbia, even though the 17 year-old is only in his first season in the top flight and is unlikely to go to Euro 2008. The answer to that one looks a resounding yes.

Then there is the more difficult conundrum of David Albelda.

The Valencia player has always been Aragones’s first call when’s he’s wanted a tough edge in midfield. But Ronald Koeman’s decision to purge the former club captain means he has not kicked a ball, or an opponent for that matter, in anger for two months.

Argentina may have decided to call up Juan Roman Riquelme while he was in the wilderness at Villarreal, but while you might be able to justify the inclusion of a languid player renowned for his touch, set-piece play and passing, it is more difficult to see how a player of Albelda’s characteristics can keep his place without that competitive edge.

Valencia’s dramatic downturn in form must be giving Aragones a serious headache given that the backbone of the squad comes from the club.

Centre-back Carlos Marchena is increasingly unsteady, wingers David Silva and Joaquin look to have run out of ideas and striker David Villa has lost his spark up front. Will he stick with them and hope they pull through under Koeman or will he look for possible alternatives ahead of Euro 2008?

Aragones has become accustomed to fielding a barrage of questions from the Madrid-based press about Raul’s absence from the squad, but this time, and barring a last-minute change of heart, he will have to explain the omission of the in-form Guti as well.

Although inconsistent and occasionally petulant on the pitch,  the Real Madrid midfielder seems to operate on a different plain to the rest. He is a master of the defence-splitting pass and the unexpected assist. With Xavi failing to shine at Barça could it be time to give Guti another chance?

Another dilemma for Aragones is who to bring in as cover at left back. Joan Capdevila looks to have nailed down the first-choice slot after a great season at Villarreal but Atletico duo Mariano Pernia and Antonio Lopez have failed to convince and Aragones may look further afield with Mallorca’s Fernando Navarro now the favourite.

PHOTO: Barcelona’s Bojan Krkic celebrates a goal against Murcia during their league match at the Nou Camp, January 12, 2008. REUTERS/Albert Gea

Real Madrid’s success this season is largely down to last term’s title winners rather than the clutch of new signings.

With 17 games left to play, the nine-times European champions are sitting pretty at the top of the table, nine points clear of arch-rivals Barcelona and 15 ahead of third-placed Villarreal.

Among the new faces, Portugal centre back Pepe and Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder have made some telling contributions, but they have by no means been decisive.

Defenders Christoph Metzelder and Gabriel Heinze and former Chelsea winger Arjen Robben have spent more time in the treatment room than on the pitch. Argentine striker Javier Saviola has continued his Barcelona bench warming role while Dutch wingback Royston Drenthe has had an accident prone start to his Real career.

Instead it has been the old guard, who helped snatch the title from Barca’s grasp last season, that have been the secret to Real’s good form.

Iker Casillas has developed an aura of invincibility in goal, Ruud van Nistelrooy remains devastatingly efficient up front, Raul has recovered much of his old spark, and Brazilian trickster Robinho and the mercurial Guti are in the form of their lives.

Real may not be playing the sort of crowd-pleasing football Bernd Schuster promised at the start of the season, but there is no denying that they have been supremely effective.

An early exit from the King’s Cup has come as a blessing in disguise and the players looks fresh and sharp as the team heads into the business end of the season.

Is it Schuster that has brought the best out of these players? Has the German merely reaped the rewards of the legacy left by Fabio Capello? Or is it just that Real look so good because they have no serious rivals in Spain this season?

Simon Baskett, Madrid

PHOTO: Real Madrid’s Robinho celebrates his goal against Villarreal with Guti. Jan. 27 REUTERS/Andrea Comas

Ronald Koeman has ordered the building of a brick wall at Valencia’s training base in Paterna in an attempt to keep our prying eyes and prevent the players from getting distracted, but the Dutchman will need to do a lot more than a bit of handy work if he is to bring about peace and tranquillity at the Primera Liga club.

Koeman has raised eyebrows (to say the least) with his get-tough approach since taking charge at the Mestalla, in particular with his decision to purge three of the club’s most experienced players in the shape of David Albelda, Santiago Canizares and Miguel Angel Angulo.

The storm might have blown over if results had improved, but they haven’t. Instead the team have gone out of the Champions League, won just one of their last nine league matches and now lie just five points above the relegation zone.

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, The Offside have even raised the dreaded ‘R’ word.

“I have absolutely NO faith in management, coaching, the players or the president to save us right now,” writes Cesar. We HAVE to start playing better … and fast. Like … NOW. Or this could be one of the worst seasons in Valencia history, when we predicted it could be one of the best.

At the same time, matters off the pitch have been getting out of hand.

The club’s most expensive close season new recruit, Manuel Fernandes got involved in a nightclub scuffle and has been shunted off to Everton. His replacement Ever Banega hit the headlines for his appearance in an Internet sex chatroom video, while the outcast Albelda has launched legal action against the club.

Valencia has never been an easy club to work at — just ask Rafa Benitez. Even he left under a bit of a cloud despite having led the club to two league titles and victory in the UEFA Cup after he got fed up with the behind-the-scenes wrangling.

Antonio Lopez and Claudio Ranieri both exited by the back door after failing to meet the expectations of the notoriously hard-to-please fans, while Quique Sanchez Flores was involved in a high-profile power struggle with sporting director Amedeo Carboni in his first season in charge.

When Sanchez Flores was sacked in October with the team in fourth place in the league and still in Europe, he appeared relieved rather than upset. “I may have lost my job but I feel that I have recovered my life,” he said.

So the question is, have Valencia basically become unmanageable? To put it another way, is there any solution to the current crisis? And is Koeman the man for the job?

PHOTO: Koeman watches his Valencia players during a practice session at Stamford Bridge in London, December 10, 2007. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

Real Madrid fans are a hard bunch to please. 

They are still not happy despite being seven points clear at the top and having a perfect home record. The highest number of points for a 20-team league since the introduction of three points for a win hasn’t excited them either.

The big moan is that the team have failed to consistently play the attack-minded football promised by new coach Bernd Schuster.

After all, Real got rid of Schuster’s predecessor Fabio Capello in June because the team had not provided the sort of entertainment demanded by the club and its fans despite the fact he steered them to their first league title in four years.

“I’ve never seen anything difficult in football,” Schuster told reporters at his presentation. “I’ve got great confidence in myself and the team and I’m convinced my idea of football will fit in with what the fans want.”

Schuster has done better than Capello in terms of results in the first half of the season, but the promised improvement in style has largely failed to materialise.

Once again it is goalkeeper Iker Casillas and striker Ruud van Nistelrooy who have been the club’s stand-out players. The Spain keeper has produced a host of heroic performances to prevent Real slipping to defeat against dominant rivals, while the Dutchman has been at his clinical best by taking full advantage of relatively few chances up front.

Like Capello, Schuster has often used the club’s most talented playmaker Guti as a second-half substitute rather than in the starting lineup, suggesting he is not prepared to take too many risks for the sake of entertainment.

Schuster has gone on record as saying that because of their status, tradition and the players at their disposal, Real and Barca are obliged to play the best football in the league, but his team have frequently resorted to the sort of counter-punching tactics that would have brought a smile to Capello’s lips.

Schuster certainly talked the talk when he took charge, but are the players finding it hard to drop the Capello style of play or is he taking a leaf out of the Italian’s coaching manual?

Simon Baskett, Madrid

PHOTO: Real Madrid’s coach Bernd Schuster walks on the pitch following their Champions League Group C soccer match against Werder Bremen Nov. 28 REUTERS/Christian Charisius