After a week when I read “I’ve been sending £4 a month to sponsor an African family for the past five years. I just got an update to tell me how they’re doing. They sent me photographs of themselves from Dover – seems they saved up to buy a dinghy !” – Real Mallorca fans should have just about recovered after watching a nerve-shredding defensive display, down to ten men in a 0-0 draw against Athletic Club last Monday night.
All seemed lost when tough-tackling Portuguese midfielder Samu Costa was sent off in the 23rd minute. As a spectacle, the game looked over for us but a magnificent rearguard action saw “Los Bermellones” salvage a point against a team who had 21 shots at goal and won 14 corner kicks. Fortunately for us, as an effort in the second half from Bilbao’s Nico Williams went into the net, the ball was found by VAR to have gone over the byline, which spectators had already seen. The nearside linesman standing only feet away had failed to spot it !
I thought we’d seen the end of pompous po-faced Spanish referees whose performance and presence seemed, to them, more important than the players themselves. Señor Munuera brought back the bad old days of officiating with his pedantic style which wound up the 20,000 crowd big time.
For me and countless other football fans, VAR has spoilt many goal celebrations. Every time the net’s bulged, the cloud of VAR dread is cast over proceedings. All joy is lost when some killjoy in the VAR room takes out their ruler to draw offside lines and pontificates on dodgy hand balls. Managers and players dare not say anything nowadays about refereeing mistakes as they have to follow a law of silence which punishes players with a four to twelve game suspension.
With Monday night’s stalemate, Mallorca coach Jagoba Arrasate equaled a defensive record set by our legendary Argentinian coach Hector Cuper in the late 1990s. We’ve only conceded eight goals in 11 games, which makes us second in La Liga stats after Atletico Madrid. We’ve kept a clean sheet against Sevilla, Leganes, Real Sociedad, Rayo Vallecano and Athletic this season. Our defence under the captaincy of centre back Antonio Raillo have been sensational so far this season and fans were shouting “Raillo selection” during Monday night’s game – unfortunately at 33 years it looks like his boat to international honours has sailed.
As to Costa’s sending off, Mallorca coach Arrasate said post match “Samu has a virtue and a defect and that is he goes all out and has to learn to control himself – sometimes he goes in too hard.” Samu Costa is an integral part of Real Mallorca’s playing style. He regularly runs more kilometres per game than any other player in La Liga. One thing he doesn’t do is shirk a tackle !
His recent performances have attracted the interest of other clubs and his agent Jorge Mendes (nicknamed “Super Mendes”) wants to transfer Costa to Atletico Madrid in the January transfer window. Mallorca own 80% of the player rights and will not negotiate under any circumstances below their asking price of around 20 million. Almeria also retain 20% of the rights to the player who has just broken into the Portuguese national team and who turns 24 this month. Mallorca are aware that they will have to end up selling Costa, probably next Summer. “Los Colchoneros” need an aggressive midfielder with good ball recuperation skills. However, Atleti will have to wait because Mallorca have slapped an intransferable tag on Samu. Agent Mendes wants Costa to join a Champions League side so, failing a move to the capital, a Premier League team would surely be interested.
Next up tonight (Friday 1st) Mallorca will play Alaves at their Estadio Mendizorroza in the Basque capital of Vitoria. Alaves are managed by ex Mallorca boss Luis Garcia Plaza, but after a promising start the team are close to the relegation positions. They’ve had a month to forget. Included in their midst is a certain Luka Romero who turned out for Mallorca when he was just 15 years old. Joining Lazio in 2021, his career seems to have stalled at 19 years old, and he’s now out on loan from his Italian parent club AC Milan.
AND FINALLY, a 90-year-old geezer goes to see his doctor. He asks him “Do you have anything for my arthritis ?” After examining the gentleman, the doctor tells him “That’s not arthritis you’ve got, it’s early onset rigour mortis !”
