It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mallorca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2037
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Till Winkelmann is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.31 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
370 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sergio Rodelas. 6‑4 against Almería, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
10 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Mallorca and Almería in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.57 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 27 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mallorca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Nov 2036
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriël Misehouy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 9.83 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mallorca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Jun 2036
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodri is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
SquadJan Virgili has become a man the manager trusts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mallorca may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 May 2036
Manu Morlanes falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Antonio Sánchez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.56 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mallorca have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Pablo Torre was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mallorca they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Mallorca have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Bergström is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
Player ratingsPablo Torre was on a different afternoon to everybody else