After much bluff and bluster during the week, Spanish football did go ahead at the weekend by decree of the courts.
The threat of a strike hasn’t dissipated completely mind you. Just suspended long enough for the 2014/15 season to conclude.
It allowed Barcelona the chance to win the La Liga title at the Estadio Vicente Calderon, home of Atletico Madrid, exactly a year to the day since Atleti had taken the title at Camp Nou.
Barca, and Lionel Messi in particular, duly accepted the invitation.
Cristiano Ronaldo celebrated yet another hat-trick for Real Madrid, but even his best efforts were in vain. The Spanish inquisition that will follow at Los Blancos will be protracted and detailed.
How can a club that won 22 games in a row between September and December, and have lost just once since mid-March, end the season with just a meaningless Club World Cup to show for their efforts?
A team that added the mercurial talent of James Rodriguez and a World Cup winner in Toni Kroos still came up short when it mattered.
Yet the focus of failure has fallen squarely on the shoulders of Gareth Bale. The Welsh wing wizard has endured a tortuous second season in the Spanish capital but, when we look at the numbers, it’s difficult to understand why that is so.
Using the various performance data that is now available to accurately assess a player’s contribution, Bale performs well among his contemporaries.
Indeed, over the course of the entire campaign, he remains the third-best-performing Real Madrid player. Ronaldo is way out in front, with Bale just behind Rodriguez.
In terms of goals, Bale has 17 across all competitions, just two less than centre-forward Karim Benzema and only five less than his total from his debut season in Spain.
It’s entirely fair to speculate, therefore, that Bale is being made a scapegoat for the failings of the club in general to win a trophy of any significance.
Admittedly, Bale has slipped below his performance level of 2013/14 on occasion, but that’s only to be expected after such a glorious beginning to his career in Madrid.
The €100m price tag was never going to sit well with Real’s President Florentino Perez or their demanding set of fans if the title conveyor belt didn’t turn apace this season either. But to use it as a stick to beat him with is a little rich.
It’s no wonder rumours are gathering pace that Bale may soon return to the English Premier League, with a move to Manchester United mooted.
With a rich history of flying wingers that are warmly appreciated by the Old Trafford faithful, Bale may well find comfort in the bosom of the Theatre of Dreams.
A world away from his Real Madrid nightmare.
— The writer is a freelance journalist and Spanish football expert
