There have been transition periods in the EPL, that's a given, but the main argument is that the transition period was when LC won the title and the years or so before and after this. Could this year be weak? Perhaps, I personally do not think so, however, there have been worse years than this one if you truly believe this year has been a transition year. My thoughts are that La Liga has been one of the leagues going through a transition year with the fall of Barca in Europe and all the other teams are sort of going through a generational cycle for Spanish players. Real was able to overcome this by hiring a good yet overrated manager, but still spending loads of money for youth before Covid struck. That meant they were able to keep the majority of their future core on low wages when they had to sell Ramos and Varane afterwards to balance the budget while Barca was hit by very high wages on ageing players. Spanish clubs haven't been doing well in Europe in the last couple of years as well (one finals appearance in the last four seasons).