After a week when it was disclosed that Peruvian owls hunt in pairs – they are Inca Hoots ! – Real Mallorca play their fourth game in this season’s La Liga, and third game in eight days, with an away trip to second division champions Leganes (11 km from the centre of Madrid). Kick off in their Estadio Butarque is 21:30 tomorrow (Saturday).
Mallorquinistas are under no illusions that the team need to improve drastically after two draws and a defeat. Last Sunday’s soporific 0-0 stalemate against Sevilla in the Son Moix showed that new coach Jagoba Arrasate has his work cut out to get his squad up and running. It was glaringly obvious Mallorca are desperately needing a wing player who will hopefully be signed before the transfer window in Spain slams shut tonight, Friday 30th, at midnight.
On Wednesday Mallorca turned down a 4 million euro bid from Italian Serie A side Lecce for Copete, and it was rumoured a Saudi Arabian team were looking at Sergi Darder, and several other Mallorca players including Muriqi and Samu Costa were interesting other clubs.
Mallorca’s director of football, Pablo Ortells, has been monitoring Real Betis’s Rodri Sanchez for the past few weeks and it seemed likely (when this article was written Wednesday evening) that a deal is almost done and dusted, meaning the player from Extremadura would arrive on the island on loan and with a mandatory purchase option close to six million euros to be included if (God willing !) Mallorca don’t get relegated next May. Mallorca would pay 1.5 million for the loan and another five if the final purchase is made on June 30, 2025. According to the local football media in Seville, Mallorca would take charge of the whole transfer fee and would even raise the salary of the 24-year-old Rodri, who would remain with Mallorca until 2029 as he wants to have more playing time and feel important in La Liga. At Betis he didn’t see the possibility of playing on a regular basis.
It was reported on Wednesday that a potential stumbling block in the transfer situation would see Betis boss Manuel Pelligrini have the final word on the transfer outcome. The truth of the matter is that Betis need to free up wages to face new operations and have recently signed Barcelona misfit, the Brazilian Vitor Roque on loan for a season.
Ortells is allegedly also scrutinizing the availability of Real Sociedad winger Rober Navarro in what would be a last-minute transaction. Mallorca are also looking for a low-cost right back as Pablo Maffeo is the only player at present playing in that position.
Against Sevilla last Sunday Arrasate played a 4-4-2 system with Antonio Sanchez and Sergi Darder the widest players in the line-up. Both of them moved towards midfield when playing, which caused a major “player jam” in the middle of the pitch. Both our full backs, Maffeo and the excellent Mojica, spent more time up the pitch instead of defending and Sevilla could easily have made it 0-1 in a counterattack with Mallorca leaving the back door wide open.
Towards the end of the game, in added time, when many fans left early in a bid to avoid the rush, they missed our most productive part of the whole caboodle when Muriqi, Samu Costa and 18-year-old Marc Hidalgo Domenech all should have scored. Domenech is the son of one of Spain’s first female referees, Carolina Domenech, who was only allowed to officiate in the lower leagues here in Mallorca, presumably because she was a woman – changed days.
Last Sunday we heard the first whistles and boos at the Son Moix when Canadian striker Cyle Larin was substituted in the 65th minute. This season he’s been converted unsuccessfully into a left winger but in all honesty his best position should be left in the dressing room ! Positioned more as a second striker to try to take advantage of passes from Muriqi (who I wish at the moment had his head on his feet !), Larin just didn’t do anything of note.
Mallorca fans’ patience seems to have run out with the Canadian. After a poor start last season and despite the fact the new campaign is only three games old, he had been burdened by his transfer fee of eight million euros and being in receipt of one of the highest salaries within the squad, plus he’s on a five-year contract. The signing of Larin from Valladolid two years ago will remain as one of the great mysteries/economic burdens in Mallorca’s history, unless Arrasate can get a tune out of him this campaign.
AND FINALLY, Manette Baillie, aged 102, jumped from a plane last week at 7,000 feet to celebrate her birthday. When she was halfway down, the guy who was strapped on to her as they plummeted down to earth shouted in her ear “How long have you been an instructor ?!!”