Welcome to Summer in Mallorca 2009

By: Jeremy | June 18th, 2009

The season is over and Mallorca managed to harness its talent and move away from what seemed like certain relegation after the first half of the season to a final 9th place position. As in 2008, the new players mixed well with the returning players to finish strong just on the outside of Europe. While the 2009 team was not as strong as 2008, we are again facing a mass exodus of players and will once again be hoping that the initially less valued replacements managed to come through and not only avoid relegation but have us playing meaningful games for a top half of the table position come spring.

Watching teams like Madrid trying to dump players like yesterdays garbage, who would otherwise be stars and real draws on our team, makes it frustrating to be a fan of a smaller team. We cant afford the big name players and are reliant upon mid level finds and surplus loan players from big teams to create a unit that has to mesh quickly or be forced to play top level football in the spring just to avoid relegation.

With this pattern of building a new team yearly, we occasionally find a group that comes together to be great. 2008s team was one of my all time favorites yet last summer we watched Guiza and Ibagaza amongst others head to bigger clubs or clubs who could pay them more money when if everyone had stayed, we would have been even better this year. Now its summer 2009 and the expectation is that clubs will raid us for what few stars we have left.

Lets look at where things are headed in the not so distant future…

Management/Ownership

After the failure to sell the club to the Brit last year, ownership is in disarray and money is tight. We must sell players to pay debts and there is no reason we will be able to purchase some good players for next year with the money we make from selling. For all the money we got last summer from the sale of players, there are still financial problems and money owed to other clubs for purchases we did make. Someone needs to come in and save this club.

Manzano however has weathered the storm and is one of the top managers in Spain. There was talk about him moving on to Villarreal but one reason he stays is he has quite a bit of say in the running of the club. He gets what he wants and that is a powerful reason to stay. He will be in demand over the summer and hopefully we can keep him, but if we lose too many players, he will bail as well as he wants a winner.

Goalie

We have three good goalies and one or two will be sold to bring in some cash to pay debts or spend in other areas. Moya is still around and is first choice goalkeeper but he could bring the most money. If he is willing to accept a back up role, he might end up in Barca but its likely he wants a fresh start and first team football. He will likely be gone before the summer is over.

Lux and Aaoute played equally last year after Moya got hurt and both are solid goalies. If we dont keep Moya, it would not be worth the extra money for the minor improvement a new goalie may bring. One of these two will be our main netminder next year.

Defense

With stalwarts Josemi, Navarro, Varela, and Nunes playing most of the time last year, the team still managed to give up way too many goals. That is the price we pay for instability in goal and a wide open style of football. Ramis and Corralles are good players and provide depth and Ramis is probably as big a target as anyone and he will get some looks from other clubs. Scaloni may return to Italy. While the back is an area that needs to be improved, there are not any players that warrant a transfer target so this group should return mostly intact next year while we focus on other areas of the team

Midfield

Our two best players are likely to be gone shortly and the midfield, an obvious strength last year, will soon be in shambles needing immediate reinforcements. Arango has spent many quiet years for us and many feel he should bring his talent to a bigger stage. Ultimately he is a great fit here and his style fits the teams style. The fact he may head to Germany to play is a shame as he wont get better football and certainly wont get any more publicity. If the cant go to Italy or the Premier League, he would basically lose himself like Guiza has in Turkey.

Jurado is expected to return to Atletico although we need to try and purchase him outright. Just 21, he raised his game to where he is wanted back to help with their European ambitions. He is the latest player we get who does great only to immediately have to leave.

Cleber Santana, also on loan from Atletico, wants to stay in Mallorca, but he could also leave and return home. That will be our three top midfielders lost and for nothing. We cannot survive this hit and this situation needs constant attention.

With an aging Marti on his way out and not relevant to our future, players like Chori Castro need to continue to improve and we must see if Callejon can follow Jurados career path and make a name for himself rather then not playing for the first team. Suarez should return as well, but after the midfield raid on our team we will soon see, we must bring back top players or we will be relegation fodder next year.

Forwards

For all the negativity with the midfield, the forwards are no better. We replaced Guiza with Aduriz and despite all that extra money, we still have not fully paid Athletic for the transfer fee. Now it looks like he may be sold, possibly to Greece, so we can pay a debt. I cant see him playing in Greece and he is a player we must keep if we are to challenge for a top half position next year.

Our other strikers cannot be counted on so if we lose Aduriz, we will really need to spend some money on another one which poses the question, why not just keep Aduriz?

Webo played in 30 games but he was a failure. New transfer Keita showed some goal scoring prowess but Manzano does not see him as a legit La Liga striker so he could go at any time. Keita was given a chance as well, but the team seems to have soured on him despite the relatively limited amount of play time. Trejo is still around because his injuries limited him to 9 games and he barely had a chance to show his worth. If we can get him healthy then he can be the player that is the object of many EPL clubs desire.

Ultimately our lack of goal scoring killed us in the first half of the season. While it improved over time, we cannot lose Aduriz. If he goes, it is a sign that we will be playing with inferior talent next year.

Ultimately this team must do what has seemingly done in past years. They sell their players after they peform well and bring in new ones who are talented yet less proven hoping they can become what was just sold. This is a good way to build a talented team on the cheap, but it is a recipe for disaster when it is done year to year. You cant assume that the talent you lose will be replaced by similar talent.

This summer is just the latest time we sit with our hands behind our back while fan favorites leave the team knowing we can do nothing hoping that the new players come in and are just as good. 2009 was a good example of managment being aware of what needed to be done to stay safe and they will have their work cut out for them next year.