In the summer of 2013, Real Madrid and Barcelona both went out and made headline-grabbing purchases. The former side splurged over 100 euros on Gareth Bale while the other was involved in the controversial purchase of Neymar.

Throughout the season, both players struggled at different times with Bale looking lost early on before turning into a hero and Neymar starting strong but ending poorly.

The expectation was that both players would continue their growth and show the world their abilities to take their teams to new heights.

Did they succeed?

For Neymar, the season has been an massive success. He still has three games left to play, but Neymar has been a sensation in every possible way. He has three games left to go, but he already has a whopping 38 goals and six assists, numbers that rival those of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo (they are both above 50, but 40 goals for any player is huge).

He has scored in numerous fashions and with tremendous consistency. In 43 matches, he has only failed to score in 21 games, meaning that he puts the ball in the net in over half the games he plays. What is more, when he scores he is averaging 1.72 goals per game; he has only had one hat trick on the year.

He has also scored in key moments, none bigger than the two tallies he put up against Bayern Munich in the second leg of the semifinal. He scored three in the semifinal overall, sending the team through to the final of the big tournament.

That is simply something he did not accomplish all of last season, when he struggled to score more than nine goals in Spanish competition.

One of the issues last season was that Neymar was unable to build a truly dominant connection with Messi, often opting to give up chances to facilitate the Argentine. This year the script has been flipped with Neymar being given more opportunities by his teammate and newcomer Luis Suarez to flourish. With the three playing most unselfish soccer, their stat lines have grown tremendous across the board.

A year ago, Bale flourished because he, Ronaldo and Karim Benzema were playing terrific soccer together.

This was no longer the case in 2014-15 with Bale becoming the target man for all of the fan base's frustrations. He was called out by Ronaldo on a few well-documented incidents and was constantly booed and harassed by Real Madrid "supporters."

The result? Bale has 17 goals in all competitions this season, down from the 21 he put up in his defining year in 2014-15. He has often looked like a lost man, missing key opportunities to help his club. This was most present during the recent 1-1 draw against Juventus that left Real Madrid out of the Champions League. Bale had one chance after another to get his team into the next round, but repeatedly failed in those key moments.

Since the start of 2015 he has a shocking six goals and seven assists. Not horrible numbers, but a far cry from the kind of numbers he was putting up early in the year when he seemed to be clicking with his teammates.

It has not helped that Bale has not been given the freedom to be at his best this year. He is constantly playing on the right wing in a system that gives him little space to use his speed. Despite being the better free kick-taker, he has to watch Cristiano Ronaldo repeatedly fire the ball over the net or miss it altogether.

Bale might not be back after this two-year experiment. Neymar could become Barcelona's best player for years to come. It looks like Barcelona definitely made the better buy in the summer of 2013.