Primera Federación

What he had, what coaches at La Masia noticed early and developed carefully, was an extraordinary capacity to read the game before it unfolded.

By the 2023-2024 season, playing for Barcelona Athletic in the Primera Federación under Rafa Márquez, Bernal was already outperforming expectations for a player his age against experienced senior professionals.

His aerial dominance, his composure under pressure and his ability to contribute goals from midfield, something neither Guardiola nor Busquets did regularly, drew attention from above.

Hansi Flick, who had joined the club that summer, saw in Bernal the player he had been looking for.

But I mean, before our last, say, 10 years that we had in Segunda, we were a Segunda B club who were never, ever higher than that.

And you can see every season that there's clubs that are struggling and Like, you just look at Tarazana, who just went out of business in Primera Ref.

You know, I mean, there's clubs...

I'm not sure what it is in Spain, but, I mean, there's clubs that try... try to go for a lot more than they can achieve.

I think you're absolutely spot on.

What it did for Alcocon over the next decade, put them on the map and took them to that next level.

And I think that's what, even to this day, Alcocon competing consistently, being able to sign the players that they can in Primera Ref.

I'm sure they'd rather be in the Segunda, no doubt about it.

And that should translate into a better product on the pitch.

Yes, and this is one of the things that I talked about when I spoke on the El Partido podcast about Mallorca recently and Real Mallorca's double promotion from Segunda Bay and that relegation to Segunda Bay, as it was then, now Primera Federación, really helped them to clear the decks and to get some positive momentum.

And we've obviously seen that in recent times with the likes of Malaga, with the likes of Depor, who've managed to do that and then have success.

So perhaps it is the best way, though it does feel as if they're in such a mess that maybe they wouldn't find it quite as easy to come back.

And And Restrojo is an interesting character because, again, not one of those I would necessarily have expected to end up in.

So, Gunnar had a decent season last year, Algeciras in Primera Federación, but I was a bit surprised when he made the step up and he took his goal really well, as you say.

But, yeah, Anja was absolutely raging, wasn't he? Both, just the whole game, the first half, lack of, you know, cutting edge when he needed it in front of goal.

And the second half, the way they dropped off and allowed Adenci back into the game.

They're using data to sort of push their way up through the leagues, and they're hoping to get to Segunda.

But yeah, going back to what Da- uh, Daniel was saying to me, there's a sort of realization across the four clubs from the region that are in Primera Federación this season that whoever breaks that barrier and gets to Segunda, they're gonna hoover up a lot of-

Mm

... sort of fans.

Obviously, it's great to have La Liga football back.

We've have had Primera RFEF and Spanish Segunda going on during the international window, but obviously this is the, the headline stuff.

And I don't think we can look much further past Hansi Flick's Barcelona side winning once again, the perfect start to the season.

They just look unstoppable at the minute, don't they?

See, I was g- 'cause I was gonna say something here, and it's, I, I don't know if you told me this, Paul, actually, but there is a twist when it comes to Majorcan football because obviously San, San Moisés i- is, is known as Real, um, Mallorca's ground.

However, there was a rumor or someone whispered something in my ear that if there was ever a scenario where Real Mallorca and Atlético Baleares, say Atlético Baleares were the club that were in Segunda and Real Mallorca were in, um, Primera Federación as it would be now, that they would automatically get the rights to the bigger stadium.

Uh, d- am I making that up or, or has someone...

Is that true?

Um, the club declared, you know, bankruptcy in 2010, which is never a good sign, but it was something that was a lot more common in Spanish football at the time.

Obviously sort of- A lot of it around the sad status and sort of debts had really spiraled and all sort of came to around ahead in the, in the noughties and Mallorca were unfortunately one of those clubs which, uh, were affected.

Um, as you mentioned, relegated, um, in the, uh, the mid-10s and then in January, uh, 2016, uh, a group come over and take them over and basically look to implement all these ideas, try and get them back into Primera.

The opposite happens and immediately a year later they fall into the Spanish, uh, Segunda B, which is now Primera RFEF, the third tier, uh, for the first time since 1981.

Um, you know, really good season and then not such a good season.

Uh, has since had a fairly disastrous short-lived spell with Real Murcia in Primera Federación, and he walked away from that or, or left that, shall we say.

He didn't walk away from it.

He was asked to leave that role, uh, around about a year ago now, so he's been out the game for a while.

But of course, that, you know, often is the nature of the beast, isn't it? Um, I presume he could have taken a Segunda job before now because he was managing in, uh, Primera Federación before, but he hasn't, and so he's back in, in the fray and, and has got a big job to do.

Yeah.

I suppose the issue is he could have taken one if he was offered one, but it looks as if he wasn't, and that's not really a surprise when you look at the end of his era at Eibar, which very much went downhill, and then as you mentioned, the job that he did or didn't do at Real Murcia.

Could this be the game, scored twice in this game, could this be the one that, you know, really starts to get him back to where he was, uh, quite a long time ago now to be perfectly honest.