More Ins and Outs

By: Jeremy | August 25th, 2008

With the transfer window coming to a close shortly, Mallorca continues to be active in the transfer market as they try to add players to make up for the huge losses while also trying to loan out players that they hope to use in the future, but who right now need some first team football, even if its in a lower division.

Here is the latest and my thoughts on what the transcations really mean:

We have acquired on loan another Atletico Madrid player, Cleber Santana. He is a 27 yr old midfielder who came to Madrid from Santos and just couldnt crack their first team and only appeared in 11 games for them last year. While he clearly hasnt developed like they wanted him, they still want to see him get first team football to see if he is worth keeping. They loan him out to us because he has a chance to play in LaLiga and we simply arent as good as they are so maybe he can crack our lineup. Manzano likes him and he will be given a chance although I dont think he is guaranteed a spot in the starting eleven. Any time you can get a player from a better LaLiga team, it helps so he will add to our depth and if he can assert himself we could have a player who makes a difference. Of course if he does well, he returns to Madrid next year. Manzano just wants to get more fish in the barrel so when he shoots, he might actually hit something as our other fish were getting taken out and the barrel was almost empty.

We are also loaning out players to second division Spanish sides for the same reason Madrid loans us players. Here are some recent transactions:

Victor will go to Gimnastic to see if he can score some goals for them.

Nsue, our 19 year old Spanish youth star will go to Castellon and get some first team football. For those of you who dont know, this kid is our prize prospect who has starred for Spanish youth national teams, but he is getting to that age where if he is going to be a superstar type player, he must emerge in the next year or two. He needs to show he can score goals in the Spanish second division this year so this is a good loan move. If he was good enough to play in LaLiga regularly, we probably wouldnt be loaning him out as we need a striker. He is a year or two away, but his progress must be monitored as he may be one of those guys who peaks at age 16 but he could also be a superstar.

Oscar Gonzalez is also going to Celta. Another player who we need to see play to see if he has a real future here.

For all the losses we suffered this offseason, we have made a tremendous effort to bring in some players who can make a difference and keep us competitive in LaLiga. While some were brought in on loan and some permanently, with all the changes at the club this year, we have really done as well as we could have. I know we have some extra money, or atleast we should, and Manzano is trying to bring in one more striker before he locks in his final roster, but he has really done a good job at making lemonade out of a lemon filled offseason.

Some good news seems to be that Moya is not going anywhere this year and he will be one of our most important players so it is great we can hang on to him. If we can bring in one final striker for some real money, we will turn what seemed to be an F offseason into one we can atleast look at is a C and feel like can play in LaLiga and finish in the top half of the table.

Lets finish the moves, let the players get used to each other, and get the season started.