At the beginning of the year, I wrote about plans being afoot to build a new commercial centre in Son Moix which would include a Sports Bar. Many Mallorquinistas used the old Mallorcafé to watch away games while having something to eat, but that space has been taken over by a much bigger and better Club Shop.
News broke on Tuesday that a new bar/restaurant will be open in August, located in the North end corner next to gate 4, where the old club shop used to be. The bar has been designed by the Basque architect, Izaskun Larzabal (she designed the new Son Moix, reforming it from an athletic stadium to a proper football ground), and will have a multitude of TV screens of different formats and sizes to be able to follow various sporting events occurring simultaneously. Among the screens will be two giant panels, one inside and one outside, where fans will be able to enjoy (or not as the case may be!) Mallorca’s away games. The area involved covers 631 square metres divided into two floors with capacity for 150 people and an outdoor terrace for a further 100.
Two more “finals” in Andalucia
Mallorca will play “two finals” (six pointers) in Andalucia as they face Sevilla next Monday (22nd) at 9pm and then Cadiz in the Nuevo Mirandilla on Sunday 28th at 2pm. Although Mallorca are six points clear of the relegation zone, they mustn’t rest on their laurels because not only are these two tough games away from home, but we’ve only won one game on the road since last September when a last-minute Muriqi header saw us beat Celta Vigo 0-1.
Sevilla are three points ahead of us and are just about grinding out results but it’s been a poor season by their high expectations. Monday’s game is so important for both sides, especially for us and if we get a point that’s all well and good.
Mallorca are not playing bad football despite their 15th place in La Liga but there’s no denying our goals for stats (25) is one of the worst in the league. Upfront between Muriqi, Larin, Abdon and Radonjic, 12 goals is a poor return after 31 games. Last season at this time our attackers had netted 20 between them, plus the much-missed Kang In Lee chipped in with six.
Our latest wins have been secured by goals by defenders: Raillo against Granada, Copete versus Girona and Nastasic at Alaves. The last goal by a striker was on February 11 when Muriqi scored against Rayo. Talking of them, they played Getafe last weekend in what turned out to be a dull 0-0 draw. One journalist wrote in his match report “The most exciting thing in the game was when a wild shot hit a police horse who was standing outside the stadium!”
Despite losing narrowly (0-1) against Real Madrid last Saturday, the defeat had no consequences for us in the league table standings. It seems to be that a lot of teams in La Liga are finding goalscoring difficult. The leading scorer in La Primera is the Ukrainian Dovbyk with 17 goals followed by Bellingham on 16. There’s definitely a dearth of goal scoring strikers with the lower budget clubs and the quality in La Liga has dropped a couple of notches this season. Spanish sides going out in European competitions early on is a sign of the times.
With regard to Real Mallorca, our 65-year-old Mexican Javier Aguirre rigidly starts every game with his favourite 5-3-2 system, which many fans don’t agree with. Reading comments on social media there’s a 50/50 split on whether Aguirre stays or goes when his contract is up next month. Watch this space.
The one striker I feel sorry for is Vedat Muriqi. When he first arrived he was like a breath of fresh air and was pure box office. We hadn’t seen a striker like him in Son Moix since Samuel Eto’o between 2000/04. Muriqi is a classic act known for his prowess in the air, hold up play, laying the ball off and strength in the penalty area. This season we’ve hardly seen Muriqi in the opposition penalty area as he’s now all over the pitch, everywhere but where he should be, tormenting opposition defenders. You can see regularly Muriqi shows signs of frustration, mostly caused by his lack of service – it’s such a waste of the big Kosovan’s talents.
And finally
A real Golden Oldie. A man goes to see his doctor as he’s feeling unwell. The doctor checks him over then tells the man “I have some bad news. I’m afraid you’ve got Yellow 24, a really nasty virus. It’s called Yellow 24 because it turns your blood yellow and you usually have only 24 hours to live. There’s no known cure, so just go home and enjoy your precious moments left on earth.” The man trudges home to tell his wife the bad news. She’s naturally upset and says “Why don’t you come to bingo tonight, you’ve never been before and it might cheer you up?” At the bingo the man wins every prize going and finishes up winning 380,000 quid. The bingo caller asks him to come up on stage. “Son,” he says, “I’ve been here for 30 years and I’ve never ever seen anyone win so much in one night, you must be the luckiest man on God’s earth.” “Lucky?!” the man screams. “Lucky!! I’ll have you know I’ve got Yellow 24.” “Bloody hell,” answers the bingo caller, “You’ve only gone and won the raffle as well!!”