La Liga: Five players to look out for this season as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico fight it out for Spanish crown

It's not just the Premier League which can boast an array of new talent

Real Madrid have high hopes for new signing Marco Asensio (Getty)

Gareth Bale goes back to his day job tomorrow (Sunday) when Real Madrid kick-off the new Liga season away to Real Sociedad; the summer job went very well indeed.

So well in fact that there was a notable shift in opinion in Spain where even two European Cups in his first three years had not convinced everyone of his worth.

As he led Wales to within a game of the European Championship final critics who have argued that he is essentially an athlete who plays football saw another side to him. They saw the intelligence and sacrifice of player able to be, not just the final burst of energy – as he tends to be at Real Madrid – but to be the origin of so many moves, cleverly positioning himself, always just where his team needed him.

They saw the national pride too and they liked that – it’s easy to come across as a cold individual when you can’t express yourself in the native tongue. They would love to see him have the chance to win his third Champions League in his home town next May. But curiously, despite it being Madrid’s favourite tournament, that Cardiff final will not be their priority.

They have won just one La Liga title in the last eight years and Zinedine Zidane’s most important task this time around is to put them back on top of the domestic pile.

For the second season running the club with a reputation for outspending everyone, every summer, has been low-key in the transfer market. They needed to sell big to buy big, but for as much as the stories that Arsenal wanted the 80m-euros-rated James Rodriguez or Chelsea wanted the 70m-euros-rated Alvaro Morata were leaked, there were no genuine takers at those prices and so they have settled with what they have.

Morata will play tomorrow in the absence of Karim Benzema who has been troubled all summer by a hip problem that shows no signs of improving. The forward bougth back from Juventus will play up front with Bale and either Lucas Vazquez or Marco Asensio, deputizing for Cristiano Ronaldo.

Charly Musonda is set for another loan spell at Betis (Getty)

Asensio has been the big plus of the pre-season. Given the name ‘Marco’, after Marco Van Basten, by his Dutch mother Maria Willemsem who died in August 2011, he scored the goal of the summer in the European Super Cup final in Trondheim. He was one of five Spaniards in the team that night and this is the most Spanish, home-reared squad Madrid have paraded in years.

Barcelona have moved in the opposite direction, selling products of their academy such as Sandro and Marc Bartra, and spending big on new signings.

They paid 35m euros for midfielder Andre Gomes from Valencia and 25m euros for centre back Samuel Umtiti from Lyon.

Five who will light up La Liga:

Charly Musonda Jr. has been kept on-loan at Betis for another season. The 19-year-old Belgian forward looked brilliant in flashes last season, if new Betis coach Gus Poyet can bring consistency Chelsea could be calling him back to London.

Marco Asensio was out on loan last season at Espanyol and it shows. He displays all the maturity of a player who has a full season under his belt. He should be in new Spain coach Julen Lopetegui’s first squad and will get game time for Real Madrid this season as Zidane rotates his squad.

Denis Suarez is another who should break into the Spain team this season. Barça have bought him back from Villarreal and the 22-year-old will get his chances as Andrés Iniesta, in particular, is rested for bigger games.

Nicolas Gaitan was brought in at the end of last season to Atletico Madrid from Benfica. Simeone’s penchant for turning wingers into goalscoring forwards should work it’s magic again as he links up with Antoine Greizman and Kevin Gameiro.

Iñaki Williams looks like a player whose time has come. The 22-year-old Athletic Bilbao forward will be more important than ever for coach Valverde. This could be the year he makes the Spain squad and the Basques break back into the top four.

They also shelled-out 16.5m euros on left-back Lucas Digne from Paris Saint Germain and 3.5m euros on buying back former Manchester City midfielder Denis Suarez. More arrivals are expected.

Coach Luis Enrique has now won eight of a possible ten trophies in his first two seasons at the Camp Nou. That matches Pep Guardiola’s first two seasons and gives him license to make demands. He wants the club to spend around 30m euros on bringing Paco Alcacer from Valencia to augment the front three of Leo Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar.

Valencia’s owner Peter Lim will sell at least one big player this month. It will either be Alcacer to Barcelona or central defender Shkodran Mustafi to Arsenal. Valencia continue to weaken as the big two strengthen and the same can be said of Villarreal and Sevilla suggesting that, despite a more equitable share of television monies, we are creeping back to a time when Barcelona and Madrid will be far superior to La Liga’s ‘middle class’. That much was clear in both the European and the Spanish Super Cups when Sevilla, who have lost coach Unai Emery and top scorer Kevin Gameiro, were beaten so easily first by Real Madrid and then by Barcelona.

At least Atletico Madrid show no signs of decline. After the departures of Emery, and of Marcelino from Villarreal, Diego Simeone is easily La Liga’s longest-serving manager having been in the job 18 months longer than the next longest-serving coach, Athletic’s Ernesto Valverde.

Nicolas Gaitan is likely to be afforded time to settle at Atletico Madrid (Getty)

He says that was exactly why he doubted the wisdom of continuing after losing another Champions League final to Real Madrid last May. ‘Could I put myself in front of my players again, players who have given me everything over the last four and half years,’ he said this week.

Any doubts that the fire still burns for him should be dismissed: ‘Life does not give easy battles to the best warriors and I consider myself a warrior,’ he added. He says nothing will make up for losing two European Cup finals but he wants more than ever to take a revenge of sorts on Real Madrid by winning his second La Liga title.

Recalling that final last May he told Spanish television on Thursday: ‘Madrid know how to compete, winning is part of their make-up and in the first half an hour of that final Bale was fantastic.’

It was high praise indeed for someone who does not usually pick out rivals. Bale was superb in that final and took the form to France with him. If he can maintain the same levels this season it could well bring him his first league title.