After a week when Donald Trump was diagnosed with a vein condition – to go with the vain condition he already has ! – Real Mallorca kicked off their pre-season friendlies with a 9:30 a.m. kick-off game on Wednesday morning against fourth division Barcelona side UE Sant Andreu in the Son Bibiloni training complex. A first half goal from Colombian midfielder Dani Luna was about the only thing of note in an otherwise snooze fest. Our coach Jagoba Arrasate would have learned very little from the game except that new signing Pablo Torre takes decent corner kicks. The reason we had to play Sant Andreu is that they are owned by Japanese entrepreneur Taito Suzuki, the head of TAICA corporation who are Real Mallorca’s main sponsors.
Mallorca will train on the island until Saturday when they’ll depart for the town of Bad Haring in Austria for a short cooler-weather training camp. The first Austria friendly will be on Sunday at 4:30 pm against Shabab Al-Ahli of the United Arab Emirates. Olympique Lyonnaise will be our next opponents on July 30 at 5:30 pm. The next day we play Parma Calcio 1913, who are coached by Mallorca-born Carlos Cuesta, at 11 a.m. and all these games will be broadcast LIVE on local free-to-air channel IB3.
Besides new 6ft 8in. Finnish goalkeeper Lucas Bergström (who played the second half on Wednesday morning), another new signing made a fleeting appearance : seventeen-year-old left back Illiese Salhi was signed from French club Nice on a three-year deal. In what’s called a “market opportunity” for Real Mallorca, Salhi will initially turn out for our B team. However, coach Arrasate wants to see the French/Moroccan with a bright future in action during the Austrian trip. He’s a regular for France’s Under 18s and will train with the first team for the next few months.
The players who didn’t take part on Wednesday were Maffeo, Copete and Van der Hayden. All of them are set to leave Real Mallorca but not until the clubs who are buying them come up with the transfer fee that’s acceptable to the Palma side. Our sporting director Pablo Ortells has taken a firm stand on all the offers made to purchase these three players.
Nottingham Forest were keen to sign Maffeo but have only offered five million euros plus a variable amount close to one and a half million. This offer is insufficient because Mallorca value Maffeo at 10 million, but are aware that they may have to lower their demand. At the deadline for this article, Mallorca had gone down to 8 million which Forest firmly rejected. The player is desperate to leave and the fact that Maffeo is pushing Mallorca to accept Forest’s offer may yet affect his future.
Next up is Copete. Negotiations with Valencia are advancing well but again there’s a huge discrepancy in the transfer fee. Valencia have offered a paltry two million but Mallorca value him at four million. Valencia will double Copete’s wages. Just lately Valencia sold their star midfielder Mosquera to “Spanish” Arsenal for 20 million euros. So Valencia would appear to have plenty of cash.
Last on the list is Belgian international Siebe van der Hayden. He’s hardly touched a ball at Real Mallorca and spent most of last season at German club St Pauli on loan. Belgian club KAA Ghent have offered far less than Ortells wants so that’s another deal put on hold.
Signing a football player these days involves a lot of faff – the fees, the wages, the bonuses and the “cut” the dreaded agents get !
SEASON TICKET HOLDERS UPSET. Once again there’s a hullabaloo regarding the inadequacies of the online booking system which fans are obliged to use. Many season ticket holders who want to change their seats, now that the period for doing so has opened, are complaining about problems encountered. They wait in virtual queues for hours and when their time comes, the screen refreshes and puts them back into last place ! Emails to the office are being met with unsympathetic replies to “try again later” as the office evidently doesn’t wish to be bothered to put themselves out and provide the assistance to which fans believe they are entitled. Reports from some long-time season ticket holders who do manage to get an appointment at the office indicate that one lady in particular has a confrontational attitude with a complete charm bypass. Maybe it’s a “jobsworth” attitude by someone who has been told to make people use the online system, but if the online system is not working, then human beings need to listen and take over.
PS Sunday night sees over-hyped England Lionesses play Spain (with three Mallorcan players in the team) in the final of the Euros. God forbid England should win – the wokerati will give them all damehoods, including Dutch coach Sarina Wiegman. Gareth Southgate got a knighthood for losing, Wiegman could be made Queen !!
AND FINALLY, a one-liner. I was wondering, why does a frisbee appear larger the closer it gets. Then it hit me !