A club should be built on homegrown talent... and Real Madrid are the most prestigous spanish team, representing the captial city and boasting one of the most impressive historys of any club ever.  Surley they should represent Spain by having a "Spanish team".  The 70% is not set in stone but the teams backbone should be homegrown players. 

I guess its just how I feel teams should be, I would prefer to see teams like this.

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And its been picked up by Ryan Giggs,
Yorke has made a diagnal run,
Theirs support in the centre,
but hes past Keown...
past Dixon...
AND HAS SCORED A SENSATIONAL GOAL!!!

Everyone loves to watch their own city guys play for their team. It is quite natural. It could've happened 2 decades back, but surely impossible now. I can't imagine a single club who is playing with just their home grown talent, if not their countrymen itself.

The clubs like Man Utd, brag that they give full chances to the players who come out of their own academies. But they ask these guys to play only in the domestic cup games and hardly allow them to play more important competitions like CL which is really sickening.

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Man United has had a good a very good run with young talent, but now the main two hot prospects are Rossi nd Pique, forgieners, we have brought in Smith, Carrick, Ferdinand and are looking towrads Hargreaves.  It is difficult to have a team comprosed mainly of your own naionality.. but Valencia are doing, with Canizares, Albiol, Marchena, Del Horno, Albelba, Baraja, Joaquin, Silva, Vicente, David Villa and Morientes as first team players so it is possible.

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And its been picked up by Ryan Giggs,
Yorke has made a diagnal run,
Theirs support in the centre,
but hes past Keown...
past Dixon...
AND HAS SCORED A SENSATIONAL GOAL!!!

hmmm...interesting the slant you took to express yourself.  Valencia is not the only hope yet for Champions league glory, given that both Madrid and Barcelona still have a chance with Madrid actually leading and Barcelona only down by 2 goals depending on how you look at it. 

Let's not forget Sevilla is expected to repeat as Uefa Cup winners, although Espanyol, Celta Vigo and Osasuna have been effective in Europe.

As a Barcelona fan, I have to say I am disappointed with the way our campaign has been going, but to say it is a big let-down is a bit of a sensationalist and exaggerating.  Contributing factors include the just concluded World Cup with a few players not in the usual good form all season and the injury of 2 key players Lionel Messi & Samuel Eto'o.  But, they've still shown the ability to score goals

The so-called "situation" is merely circumstantial.  Football in Spain seems to be speeding up pace-wise and tactical diversification, the league is becoming deeper in terms of the number of good teams extending past 3 or 4, to now 7 or 8 reflected in teams down to position 10 in the table able to compete for Europe.  Unlike in Italy or in England where Inter Milan and Manchester United beat the great majority of teams below Arsenal whether they play well or not, teams like Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla cannot get those points every week because teams like Getafe & Zaragoza can and will beat you if you're not on top form, but they still are performing well in Europe.

While, the dominance of Spain has been highlighted by the success of Real Madrid and Barcelona, you will do well to note that those clubs display a great display in Europe as well, but perhaps similar to Scotland, Italy, England, Holland, France, Germany, Portugal and any other big leagues:  Spain suffer from the fact that mainly 4 or 5 teams offer real World Class competition although it is changing more in Spain now, therefore you can get complacent and overconfident without improving as a unit, team or club.

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JOGO BONITA!

i wouldnt consider spain as a nation with a falling league. i believe they are starting to rise.

Gregory:

hmmm...interesting the slant you took to express yourself.  Valencia is not the only hope yet for Champions league glory, given that both Madrid and Barcelona still have a chance with Madrid actually leading and Barcelona only down by 2 goals depending on how you look at it. 

Actually, I don't have any preferences outside England. So you can't call my comments as biased. The reason why I tell you that both barca and real are facing elimination is their performances in the first leg. Barca looked well beaten, whereas Real looked totally off colour in the entire second half. Fortunately, they didn't concede more than a goal there, or munich would have got a well deserved draw. To ask a team to go anfield and score two goals is pretty too much on any given day, barca is no exception to that. It is well noted that the scousers' game is more suited to europe than england. With barca looking out of sorts in liga, hinging on to the top spot due to the courtesy of the fellow inconstent clubs, I don't believe they can come out victorious at anfield.

When a team lying in the 8-9 spot is able to beat a top-side, it also means that top side is not consistent, complacent and vulnerable to stay there. The top team wouldn't have the team depth, quality to dominate the lower ranked teams to make the title race non existing. If such a team is able to remain at the top, how could you say that the league as a whole can benefit from that? Since the top teams are the ones which represent the country, their performance is counted to judge the depth of the league from where it comes from.

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sevilla or valencia will win it for sure.

Okay, Barcelona were beaten on away goals by the best European English club and Madrid were also beaten on away goals by the best German Club.  Both spanish clubs played ordinary football this season sometimes at best.

Perhaps not always the best team wins, but Bayern Munich along with Valencia have looked the most convincing champions league teams this season.  There is an aura of luck about Man United's entire season or maybe an aura of C. Ronaldo, Liverpool & England should realise the value of Benitez and give him some better players at liverpool.  Chelsea have looked shaky all season compared to the previous seasons.   PSV are not as strong as when Van bommel was there.  Roma are solid enough to beat Man United. Ac Milan, well, the scandal affected them more than it seemed now.

But, i am currently studying how you measure the depth of a league and admittedly, there is not one thing.  Consider that it may not be the fault of the top team that the teams in 8th or 9th beat them, but a result of the teams in 8th and 9th and their own inconsistency.  Consider Arsenal : their inconsistency of good performances have them not competing with Man United and Chelsea for the title rather than Chelsea's and Man United's inconsistency to beat Arsenal.  They beat Man United twice, but they lose points against teams like Man City and West Ham.

But i take your point about depth etc. but i was referring to the fact that teams benefit from playing teams like Sevilla, Valencia, Real Madrid, Barcelona, villareal etc ( when they are playing well) since they are a direct example of how errors etc cost you in Europe.

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JOGO BONITA!

Even last week, when barca got a draw against real, it is still at the top of the league. So a result has no significance when the teams which are trying for the top position have no consistency. Teams like sevilla, valencia don't play like a top team, but still if you go by the table, you would find them in the top 5 position. This is why I believe that the league table doesn't necessarily show you the real depth of the league.

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That is fair, it may not show the real depth of the league, but it can show that there is also enough quality in lower positioned teams that they play a higher level of football than in other leagues on the whole.

Those days when Barcelona and Real Madrid could've played however they felt and still win games are less occuring because teams like Villareal, Athletico Madrid, Real Zaragoza, even Sevilla, Osasuna, Getafe and Osasuna have very good players and coaches who have the ability to beat many top teams in Europe and as could be seen Barcelona, Real Madrid and Valencia.

Something like Arsenal lack of progression past the Quarter Finals in the Champions League except last season, but they were winning trophies in England every other year.

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JOGO BONITA!

You have a point there. Lets agree that It shows the quality of the teams in the middle. But those teams which represent the country in europe should of top quality to show the superiority of the league there. That's where the real quality of the league is assessed. When a table leading team goes to play in europe with their league pressure under pressure, it can't give their best in the matches over there. This is what happened to Spain this season, to Italy 2 season back. Last year, when Barca were running away with the title, they were able to concentrate fully on the CL which made them crowned as the champions in the end. Seville didn't have anything to prove in the league and so were able to perform carefree in the UEFA cup in which they became the winners.

So What I try to say is the quality of the league teams have least bearing in determining the european champions. Though in your point of view, Spain has a better quality teams than England, the la liga supremacy is not shown in their european performance. On the other hand, though the teams like Utd, Chelsea are to play with lesser quality opposition in the domestic league, they are able to do well in the european tournaments. Here, We should not fact that Middlesborough made it to the finals of the last year UEFA Cup and the Spurs and the Geordies are still in contention for this year silverware.

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3 Spanish teams playing in the semifinals of the UEFA Cup, an example that competition is harder for the top teams than any other league. Barcelona, Real Madrid and Valencia have the money and the strutucture to build a stronger team next year. You can't really call a downfall of La Liga for the results of this year, people quickly forgot that we won both competitions  last year (UEFA and CL) beating english teams. Teams weren't on top form this year as simple as that,  we always have a good season and a bad season. It's been like that for the last 10 years, and I can tell you that next year spanish teams will be strong as always

not if ronaldinho goes to ac milan, diarra goes to inter and eto to liverpool.

Which most of those moves are pretty unlikely

maybe. but ya never know, this is football...