Time to Put Up or Shut Up

By: Jeremy | August 4th, 2009

Anytime you get a new owner, it seems like there are immediate statements of ambition about how the club is going to get better players or fight for a European position, but talk is cheap. Its time to act and time is of the essence in Mallorca.

Carlos Gonzalez has been confirmed as the new majority shareholder and is already talking like he is going to remake the club and bring in the players Manzano needs not only to survive in LaLiga but to qualify for Europe.

The offseason has been tough for everyone. The team was unable to get involved in the transfer market as there seems to be cash flow problems and until a new owner was found, we had to sit around and watch Moya get sold to Valencia, Arango destroy his careers still remaining potential by leaving for Germany, Jurado and Santana return to Atletico, and Navarro leave as well to also return to Valencia. We even sent young Callejon to Albacete. Is he that bad already or do we still have that much returning talent despite all the losses. These were huge players for us and losing them with no replacements have to make us favorites for the drop.

While it may not seem like a big deal now, we did so something smart which is buy the full rights to Sergio Tejara from Chelsea. He played for Mallorca B last spring and impressed and we managed to get a distracted Chelsea to sell him back to us for 500k.

If Gonzalez’s immediate statements about the kind of players we will bring in are any indication of the clubs future, it might be a mess even if the intentions look good for shock media value. Luis Figo? I am a big fan of his, but come on, he is retired and past his better days. He might sell some seats, but not someone I would pay big money for. Riquelme? Good luck and I would love to see him come back to Spain, but if he leaves home to return to Spain does he come to Mallorca? That will be tough. He would be a difference maker though. Even the above workout kit he is wearing looks like it could be from Mallorca so maybe it is an omen. Signing him would get us big time attention in Spain.

Either way some players need to be brought in to replace what we lost and time is running out. Who is still out there I dont know, but if the money is there to spend, I would be looking to Real Madrid and their talented cast offs. Maybe Schneider is too good for us, but if we are going to get real talent with some real money, we need to be looking at the bigger clubs and their excess talent. This years Jurado is out there somewhere.

If the team can be purchased for 5-7 million, I am guessing there is obviously a huge amount of debt that Gonzalez and his conglomerate have taken over. Computer guys always scare me when they get into other businesses. Their technology and talent can make money in their industry and they think money will be made just as easy and flow just as freely in the sports world. This is not always the case and these guys often dont have the business acumen to stomach the debt or create the positive cashflow that comes with such a tempermental product. Hopefully this guy proves us all wrong and brings some stability.

While preseason does not mean a whole lot, our weaknesses are obvious as we just lost 3-1 to Wolfsburg in Germany. We need some players. If some talent is not brought in soon, Gonzalez may find his investment was not a worthy one as Serie B will be staring us directly in the face all year.

Get it going Gonzalez and show us you have a plan and that you just dont have a hard on for players who, while are or were once great players, have no real interest in coming to our team.