The news that Raúl won't be going along for the ride is now all but assimilated, but at least he's been offered a free ticket to the tournament by Spain's Channel 4, who want him to travel as commentator. Spain haven't lost since Raúl's services were dispensed with, from which one might conclude that his absence has not been greatly significant, added to which it's clear that for all his brilliance and leadership qualities, Spain have won nothing in his era. Nevertheless, it remains a fact that most European countries would still find a place in their national squads for a player of his enduring guile and experience. After a couple of dodgy seasons where his confidence looked shot, he has stormed back and won two more league titles, and this season has ended up Madrid's top scorer. Not bad for a guy who was 'finished' - but Raúl's apologists - and most of them live in Madrid and Andalucia - have largely missed the point as regards Aragonés' exclusion of him from the squad.

Raúl is a leader, but he has his own favourites, and his own way of controlling a group. His quiet and sulky aggression scares younger players, particularly those with differing political views. Raúl is not exactly left of centre, as they say. His appeal to flying the flag has never gone down well with those members of the squad who are there because they have no choice - because the autonomous regions of Catalonia and the Basque Country are not allowed to send their national teams to compete at this level. A controversial topic, and one that does not necessarily weaken the Spanish cause - but it can create tensions, the like of which Aragonés has clearly decided to leave behind.

Raúl is not staying at home because he has deteriorated as a footballer but because Spain's manager - stubborn though he has been painted, prefers to create a new situation, a new power vacuum into which new players come to the fore. Without Raúl as obvious leader, others will emerge. That's the idea, and it may well work. At the very least it changes the dynamic, and shifts the group emphasis away from Madrid and over to a more politically diluted collective. Puyol will be there, of course, but for all his leader-like qualities on the pitch, he's a quiet man off it.

He spends most of his time listening to thrash-metal on his MP4 than participating in the group, and so the crucial atmosphere of the camp in Austria will be determined by others, most likely Iker Casillas. Football's historians and amateur psychologists emphasise this aspect above all others when they do their retrospectives over major tournaments, and Spain has always been under focus for the de facto divisions in its society. If it can finally bury them, it might just win a major tournament. It might just help them to 'compete'.