After a week when, on Tuesday night during the Sporting Lisbon/Bodo-Glimt game, one of the commentators said “The Bodo boss still has a fresh pair of legs up his sleeve!” – Real Mallorca’s new coach, 45-year-old Argentinian Martin Demichelis, has wasted no time in laying down a certain set of rules. Both on and off the pitch he’s preparing his team for one of the most important games of this season – an away match against direct relegation rivals Elche, tomorrow (Saturday, March 21) at 2pm in their Estadio Martinez Valero (where Mallorca won the Copa del Rey final in 2003). Elche, after a great start to this season’s campaign, haven’t won a game in 2026.
Demichelis (his nickname is “Micho”) has been described on the training pitch as a “perfectionist” as he has altered the roadmap in several departments that had been ignored under our last coach Jagoba Arrasate. There’s been no day off for the players this week and training begins earlier than usual. Reports have said the new coach is the first to turn up at the Son Bibiloni training complex. Two of the pitches have been surrounded by tarpaulins to keep “spies” away. Strict instructions have been given to local media to say that on obtaining permission they will have 15 minutes during which to take pictures, but they must not leave their cars before permission is given. Micho has also introduced double training sessions. The club and the squad have been pleasantly surprised by his different approach and Samu Costa said that the new coach has been “like a breath of fresh air” on the training pitch.
Last Sunday before the Espanyol game the Mallorca players came on to the pitch for their warm-up 45 minutes before kick-off – another innovation. The Son Moix is no stranger to the new coach, he’s played here in 2011 and 2013 for Malaga, winning both times. I can remember these games, when Malaga was under Manuel Pellegrini and Ruud van Nistelroy was in the team.
Tomorrow’s game against Elche is so important for Real Mallorca as both clubs are jousting for La Liga salvation. The good news is that Demichelis has managed to spark a reaction from a Mallorca side who haven’t won back to back games all season and he’s overseen the team winning four points out of a possible six. However, we haven’t kept a clean sheet for 10 games. Although final positioning in La Liga is down to head to head results, it could well go down to goal difference. Winning tomorrow would see Mallorca go five points clear of the bottom three. After the international break next week we await Real Madrid in Son Moix on Saturday, April 4 at 4:15pm.
Mojica and Virgili are unavailable tomorrow. The Colombian received his fifth yellow card on Sunday while Virgili will serve the second match of his suspension. Demichelis isn’t afraid to change things around. Last Sunday he revolutionised the Mallorca formation, taking a gamble that paid off. We ended up with three centre backs and introduced Winter signing Justin Kalumba Jnr (who normally plays as a right winger). He spent the closing minutes of the game as a full back and a left winger.
One player who’s having something of a renaissance under the new management is Portuguese (man of war!) Samu Costa. He was instrumental in both Mallorca’s goals against Espanyol and has scored five this season. The first goal was VAR reviewed for five minutes after a possible foul by the tireless Samu before Pablo Torre scored. When the score went to 1-1 the coach pushed Costa further forward. That move proved dividends as his winning goal was worthy of a natural striker. Thankfully he didn’t get a yellow card as he would have been suspended for tomorrow. Winning a game without a goal for Muriqi is a good sign for Real Mallorca, it means that more players are getting involved in the action. It’s time to keep this improvement going by winning a very difficult game tomorrow afternoon.
There’s no doubt what was the biggest controversy last weekend and who was the biggest protagonist. It was Basque “whistler” Señor Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea. He allowed a possible foul in the build-up when Samu Costa swiped at the ball, missed it and allegedly booted the defender instead. The tense match had already seen an incident that required a review when a nasty tackle was upgraded to red after the referee consulted VAR. The resultant verdict didn’t warrant any complaints but the second one caused an outcry from Espanyol. Was it a foul? The incident was reviewed again and again and again, until they decided not to call anything. Unbelievable really when the referee was right next to it when it actually happened. On Tuesday the referee’s committee announced that after they viewed the incident they thought the goal by Pablo Torre should have been disallowed due to an alleged foul by Samu Costa. I wonder what would have happened if the situation was reversed? Jan Virgili received a straight red card last Saturday for something far less serious.
AND FINALLY, an old man goes into his local barber’s shop for a shave and a haircut. He tells the barber he can’t get all his whiskers off because his cheeks are wrinkled from age. The barber opens a drawer and gets out a little wooden ball and tells the man to put it inside his cheek to spread out the skin. When he’s finished, the old man tells the barber that was the cleanest shave he’d had in years. He then asks the barber what would have happened if he accidentally swallowed the little ball. The barber replied “Just bring it back tomorrow like everyone else does!”