Bad Move Guiza and other Transfer News

By: Jeremy | July 8th, 2008

Now that we have definitely lost two of our heros, I wanted to give my thoughts on these transfers out as well as mention some other transfers in that kind of fell under the radar which I failed to mention in my last post.

Fan favorite Ibagazas transfer has been confirmed to Villarreal and it is a good move for him as he wants to improve his level of competition and pocketbook. The same cannot be said for Dani Guiza. It has long been rumored that he has all but signed for Fenerbache in Turkey, but his noteworthy performance in Euro 2008 seemed to make him think he could get offers elsewhere. This clearly shows Turkey was not his first choice even if Aragones would be his coach but I guess he got impatient and wanted to make a decision.

Who knows what other offers were out there or if Turkey paid more all around then anyone else would have, but this is a bad move for his career in my opinion. I have no doubt that Turkey probably offered the most money and willingly gave Mallorca the 15-17 mil they wanted in a transfer fee, but I wonder if his girlfriend could ever think about something other then the money. I cant believe that he could not attract serious attention from Barca or a club like Arsenal or even Roma where if he signed there, he could really up his world profile with another dominating season. He has that kind of talent. While a move from one big club to another does not always guarantee success and can be a total failure for some players, ie Shevchenko and maybe even Henry, a move from a midlevel club to another club that isnt in one of the big three leagues, who albeit is in the Champions League every year, it is not a move that will further develop his career. Turkey is an inferior league and no matter how much he dominates, he would be better known as a footballer if he tried his luck with a big club. Considering he also likes Spain, the cultural transition will not be easy. Guiza has done wonders for Mallorca and is no doubt a talent, but I think whomever advises him made a bad move here. He will score goals, but will basically be an afterthought in Europe. I am sure Barca, Arsenal, or Roma wanted him and a deal was there to be made, but when Nuria answers my emails for a response, Ill get back to you. With Guizas good looks and talent, combined with a hot wife, he could have become the Spanish version of Beckham or something close. To see how Torres took a move to Liverpool and raised his profile was what Guiza should have done.

With two big names now gone, we have to regroup. The four players previously mentioned in my last post have the best chance to make a difference, but we have added two other players who I did not mention because I was hoping to get more players to add to them before discussing them. With the other four coming so quickly, these guys became an afterthought. The two players I am talking about are Lionel Scaloni and Ayoze Diaz.

Scaloni is a 30 yr old Argentine defender who we got from Lazio on a 12 month loan. Hes very familiar to Spanish fans as he played from 98-06 for Deportivo and was a very important defender for them. He managed to secure a spot for Argentina in World Cup 2006, but the past two years he has done nothing. He spent last year doing nothing in Lazio after a year with Racing with limited appearances. He is clearly on the downside of his career and hoping to get some action in Mallorca. I do not expect much from him and he will be an afterthought on our team next year.

The other player we player we picked up was from Racing as well. Ayoze Diaz is a midfielder who is 26. He did nothing for Racing last year after playing the year before with Real Murcia. He is another one of those guys who is a fringe La Liga player. He got some real playing time from 03-06 with Racing but did not emerge to the point where they saw him in their future. Maybe Racing has improved to the point where they can discard players like this who can turn out to make a difference on another LaLiga club, but I have my doubts. Racing for the most part is relegation fodder and like Mallorca has dodged relegation miraculously on more then one occasion. Now that they edged us for the UEFA Cup spot, maybe they are bringing in talent that allows Diaz to be a help for us, but I am not big on him at all.

It is clear that we are not matching what we are losing, but that is to be expected. I have hope for Juardo and even Josemi, but a lot must go our way to allow us to finish in the top ten next year. I hope Manzano is on the hunt for another striker because we need one. He is stockpiling defenders and midfielders hoping one emerges, but hopefully he sees what a great striker can do as we were outscoring teams last year which is the way to be successful in LaLiga. This is not Italy and with the offense we now have, we will be losing a lot of 1-0 and 2-1 games.

Thanks to Guiza and Ibagaza for all they did to raise the profile of this club. It is a sad day to lose so much talent so quickly with no comparable replacements in sight for now. Hopefully we will get another player or two before the window closes.