UEFA, the Intertoto, and Ignoring Year End Gossip

By: Jeremy | May 26th, 2008

First lets all be reminded of how great Memorial Day is and for the freedoms that allow me to write this blog and for us to enjoy the beauty that is America and thanks to the efforts of our soldiers, the beauty that is many countries in the rest of the world…..

Anyway, now that the Liga season has ended, we can take a step back and reflect on what was a great season for Mallorca and its fans, yet in my opinion a disappointing one. It is also a time for questions to be pondered while also ignoring the gossip about what will happen to our players during the transfer market.

Thanks to last weekends 3-2 home win over Zaragoza, Mallorca finished in seventh place in La Liga, just one spot below Racing who finished sixth and claimed the final UEFA Cup Spot. These results also saw Zaragoza take the final relegation spot in what was a great finish to the year at both ends of the standings. The surge in the last quarter of the season saw the Ballerets go from relegation candidates to almost securing sixth spot and European football. The team just ran out of games and an early season love fest for draws saw this team too far down in the standings to make European football a reality. However, with the exciting offense filled with great goals and the Pichichi winner, no matter how disappointed we fans were, it was one of our best seasons in years and one of the most exciting teams in La Liga this year and also our history.

The last quarter of the season allowed the fans to see the team that we expected to see throughout the whole year. This team should have finished with a UEFA Cup spot and to me was almost Champions League quality. With disappointing years from Valencia and Deportivo, we really should have made a push for a top four spot. This just shows you how tough a league Spain is as it takes a remarkable effort to secure a Champions League spot and any UEFA Cup spot would be considered a great year.

Finishing seventh should have allowed us to play in the Intertoto Cup. From what I can gather, it will be Deportivo in the Intertoto Cup as both Mallorca and Almeria decided to pass on the competition allowing ninth place Deportivo to take a run at UEFA Cup qualification. I know the players need a break after a tough year and summer is not always a time to play football, but someone explain to me why Mallorca would pass on the Intertoto when it could allow them a path to the UEFA Cup. When you rarely finish this high in the standings and havent played in the UEFA Cup since winning the Copa five years ago, you have to sign up and play. I dont get it.

Since the year is now officially over, we get to read all the rumors and gossip about where players like Guiza and Arango et al will be playing next year. Unless you are a fan of a big club who will truly be active in the transfer market, why would you read all these stories about who is going to get transferred when there is so little credibility to them. Another reason to ignore the soccer columns for a few weeks is the attiude of the players and what they say. Does anyone think Guiza will stay in Mallorca? As the season drew closer to an end, it became obivous that big clubs want him and he talks about Baecelona being a dream move, yet as they approached the end of the season and he wins the Pichichi, he talks about staying in Mallorca being a dream for him. Which is it? The players need to keep their mouths shut and stop teasing fans of their current club and clubs that would like to obtain them. This is a reason I dont read much soccer for the next month. I know my club will likely lose its best players and will need to be creative to bring in replacements that can help it improve over last years season or the likely scenario, players who can keep them out of the relegation dogfight. However, I dont like to get my hopes up or get frustrated that a player might leave based on what he says or does not say in response to rumors about him.

Mallorca is a solid mid table club and should be every year. We dont have the resources to compete for European football except when we aqcquire players relatively inexpensively who perform well above expectations ie Guiza. This happens on occasion, but is a rarity. The scary thing is that because of the competitiveness from top to bottom in La Liga this year, without Guiza we are in serious relegation trouble. Who will be next years Guiza? I dont know, but if we dont replace him, we arent moving up in the standings.

All we know at this point is that Jonas Guitierrez is not coming back, but that has been known for some time. Mallorca was not going to exercise its 8 million option on a player who was not happy in Palma. He is clearly talented, but it was a good move to let him go relative to the price. Guiza is gone. Arango is 50/50, and Ibagaza is likely to stay. Navarro will also attract interest from other European clubs. It is also not clear that Manzano will stay on as coach, but I think he will. He has a knack for bringing in the right players for the right price, but until this year getting them to develop has been tough. Hopefully he stays and continues to solidify this club.

This year was a great year from a team and player standpoint, but now that I have taken a deep breath from watching the drama of the season unfold, it is time to take a break and not read too much into the gossip that continues to swirl around the players. I hope all fans of Mallorca can be proud of this team, but also hope that some changes can be made that can allow us to not only keep the players who succeed, but also add players to take us to the next level on a more consistent basis. With the majority shareholder selling for 40 million euros, maybe a new owner can step in and put some money into the club. I wish I had 40 million Euros and Id move to Palma and buy a soccer club.

Until things sort themselves out, lets be thankful for what was one of our better years in some time even if it turned out to be a little disappointing. Ill be back to post when there is some real news and not just a bunch of anxious specualtion and gossip.