“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Mallorca, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.05 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Yago Santiago 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Alejandro Ramírez on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
A brace, and Abdón Prats takes the afternoon — 8.67
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abdón Prats provided it, and the 8.67 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Mallorca heard it as anything else.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Abdón Prats in the middle of it, and Lugo unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Yago Santiago and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Mallorca, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Chances created: 12. The column nobody reads carried the whole story of the match, and his name was at the top of it.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Alejandro Ramírez to a room that had heard them before.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Mallorca, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Mallorca told Toni Lato something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yago Santiago is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Mallorca has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Mallorca will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mallorca, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mallorca can pretend not to have heard.
Antonio Raíllo 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.
“I watch every Mallorca game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Feirense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A penalty is the one moment in football with nowhere to hide, and he did not score it. The walk back was long and the week will be longer.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Rodríguez 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Martin Valjent has come out of that comparison in the side, and Mallorca have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mallorca can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.67 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
1 for Manu Morlanes, marked 7.76, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Antonio Raíllo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I watch every Mallorca game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Athletic Bilbao runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Manu Morlanes. 2‑0 against Valladolid, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Pablo Torre’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Mallorca.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Pablo Torre was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Mallorca told Simone Ghidotti something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Alejandro Ramírez could afford to be generous.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
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.
0‑2 to Burgos, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Rodríguez 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.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Alejandro Ramírez to a room that had heard them before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Manu Morlanes trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Mallorca, and it is not being withdrawn.
Sergi Darder 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Pablo Nieto has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jesús Vargas is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Víctor Ruiz is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Mallorca, and it is not being withdrawn.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Mallorca, and 3 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mallorca can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The mood at Mallorca has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Dean Huijsen has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Mallorca will try again when the window opens; Real Murcia may not be selling by then.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sporting CP have kept their man, and Mallorca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luken Lozano is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
13 new faces, and Mallorca are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Real Murcia have accepted the money. What Mallorca do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Mallorca close the window on a squad of their own making
25 in and 11 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Mallorca heard it as anything else.
$670.0K on the table at Ibiza. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $719.1K — a club that wants Davo enough to be asked twice.
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.
“I watch every Mallorca game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Feirense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Two goals and a mark of 8.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Estudiantes did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.3M for Agustín Lastra, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Mallorca had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at River Plate, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Agustín Lastra is living that version at Mallorca, and it tends to show in the first month.
$410.0K was the most the club would pay and Ibiza were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Estudiantes; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.82 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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.
The deal with Leiria is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Mallorca asked and Genoa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alejandro Cortés has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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.
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
A new face in his position, and Arnau Puigmal suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Mallorca have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
The deal with Burgos is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atlético Madrid is saying, and nobody at Mallorca is enjoying the guessing.
Giuliano Simeone and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Braga have kept their man, and Mallorca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
12 seasons and 445 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Santiago Acosta is living that version at Mallorca, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Oviedo have kept their man, and Mallorca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Atlético Madrid have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad2 Aug 2027
David López 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.
The mood at Mallorca has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luca Campagnaro has just signed for Mallorca, and for once the answer mattered.
Mallorca offered $48.0K; Las Palmas said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Parma have kept their man, and Mallorca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
David López and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Rodríguez 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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Mallorca will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Luca Campagnaro is 20, and Mallorca have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Mallorca have gone to Las Palmas with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Rodríguez 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.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Mallorca have no good answer.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Mallorca would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Mallorca heard it as anything else.
41 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Manu Morlanes and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Enrique Sanz is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marc Vázquez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
The offer from Queretaro for Pablo Lara was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Mallorca hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nicolò Vaccarezza has just signed for Mallorca, and for once the answer mattered.
33 games, 12 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Mallorca now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
David López 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Mallorca people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AZ have kept their man, and Mallorca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Antoniu Roca 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.
David López and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Mallorca will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
The dugoutManu Morlanes asks for a word with the manager
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mallorca can pretend not to have heard.
Antonio Raíllo 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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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.
5 new faces, and Mallorca are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
In brief
The dugoutManu Morlanes knocks on the manager’s door
The fee is $3.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Ceuta drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Mallorca, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Mallorca heard it as anything else.
Everything agreed with Real Madrid, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Antonio Raíllo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
13 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Mallorca and Ceuta have settled on $3.4M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Mallorca, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Mallorca heard it as anything else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mallorca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
In brief
SquadWords at Mallorca training over how hard people work
34 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
The terraces31 May 2027
The mood at Mallorca has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Mateo Joseph 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.
16 games, 1 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Mallorca now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
12 goals in 33 games at Southampton — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Mallorca updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad31 May 2027
Àlex Sala 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.
Something was said to Pablo Torre and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Toni Lato trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 18 on 34 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Antonio Raíllo 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Karim Adeyemi 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.
Marked 8.29 — 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.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Mallorca pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Something was said to Zito Luvumbo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
The dugoutArnau Tenas has become a man the manager trusts
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karim Adeyemi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Zito Luvumbo 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.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Àlex Márquez left the room before anybody could ask which.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
3‑0, and Mateo Joseph took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Mallorca tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings10 May 2027
A brace, and Mateo Joseph takes the afternoon — 8.60
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mateo Joseph provided it, and the 8.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Alejandro Balde was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aboubaka Soumahoro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Mallorca can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
30 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
The terraces3 May 2027
The mood at Mallorca has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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.
Squad3 May 2027
Karim Adeyemi 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.
Karim Adeyemi 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.
0‑1 to Girona, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antoniu Roca 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.65, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Àlex Márquez to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Mallorca will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Karim Adeyemi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aboubaka Soumahoro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Antonio Sánchez will call it something else in private.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Àlex Márquez after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at Mallorca will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
Player ratingsKarim Adeyemi beats them one at a time
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Elche, and it could have been more.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
A brace, and Karim Adeyemi takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Karim Adeyemi provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Javi Llabrés will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mallorca the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mateo Joseph 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Karim Adeyemi 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Mallorca pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Nobody at Mallorca will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Mateo Joseph’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Mallorca.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Antoniu Roca 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mallorca will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Karim Adeyemi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aboubaka Soumahoro 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Pablo Lara has his answer from Mallorca; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Getafe in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
The dugoutAdrián Liso knocks on the manager’s door
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Karim Adeyemi 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.
Something was said to Alejandro Balde and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antoniu Roca 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Àlex Márquez to a room that had heard them before.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
12 goals in 28 games at Southampton — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Mallorca updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
9 combined actions and 6.86. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Antonio Raíllo's mistake
Antonio Raíllo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Karim Adeyemi 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Mallorca are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Àlex Márquez after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adrián Liso, and the manager let it.
Market1 Mar 2027
Pablo Lara returns from a loan that taught him nothing
0 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Karim Adeyemi 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Pablo Torre has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antoniu Roca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mallorca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Mallorca, and 0 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
17 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Mallorca heard it as anything else.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Iván Cuéllar reports back to Mallorca with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karim Adeyemi 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.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Arenas Club waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Mallorca is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Mallorca close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Karim Adeyemi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Mallorca asked and Ceuta said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Arnau Tenas, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Antoniu Roca 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.
Marked 6.70 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Mallorca, and it is not being withdrawn.
Antonio Raíllo 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.
Marked 7.40 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Mallorca had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Àlex Márquez was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Mallorca dressing room was either.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nobody at Mallorca is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
In brief
The dugoutManu Morlanes asks for a word with the manager
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.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Espanyol were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Pablo Torre has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antoniu Roca 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Real Avilés waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Mallorca is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Barcelona is saying, and nobody at Mallorca is enjoying the guessing.
Mallorca asked and Barcelona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mateo Joseph, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antoniu Roca 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Add another name to the list: Real Avilés have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Toni Lato. The answer from Mallorca has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Moscow have kept their man, and Mallorca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Position 19 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Antonio Raíllo 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.
Real Sociedad left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antoniu Roca 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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Àlex Márquez to a room that had heard them before.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Adrián Liso, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.14
A mark of 8.14 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Up for the corner, and Manu Morlanes delivers — 7.73
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Manu Morlanes scored, was marked 7.73, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Marked 7.12 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antoniu Roca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Mallorca game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at OFI runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
0‑6 to Atlético Madrid, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match12 Dec 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Mallorca and Atlético Madrid in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Yago Santiago has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
17 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 goals in one match, Abdón Prats on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Mallorca and Elche.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antoniu Roca 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Zito Luvumbo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Antoniu Roca was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
In brief
The dugoutHalf-satisfied: Àlex Márquez on the draw
Antonio Raíllo 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.
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antoniu Roca 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Àlex Márquez after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
A brace, and Arnau Puigmal takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Arnau Puigmal provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I did not go to OFI to sit and watch. I want to come back to Mallorca and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Àlex Márquez to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David López was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Mallorca have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
In brief
The dugoutAdrián Liso has become a man the manager trusts
Mateo Joseph and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antoniu Roca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mateo Joseph trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Celta in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Mallorca. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Unionistas are out and Mallorca go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Jan Salas, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.11
A mark of 8.11 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Mallorca hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Sergi Darder and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Athletic Bilbao left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Antoniu Roca 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Àlex Márquez after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutMateo Joseph knocks on the manager's door
Player ratingsThe afternoon ran through Javi Llabrés
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Mallorca heard it as anything else.
Yago Santiago and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Àlex Márquez after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David López 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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antoniu Roca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I did not go to OFI to sit and watch. I want to come back to Mallorca and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Àlex Márquez to a room that had heard them before.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mallorca has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Pablo Torre was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Antoniu Roca 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.
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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Sergi Darder is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Àlex Márquez after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
In brief
The dugoutManu Morlanes asks for a word with the manager
Antonio Raíllo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Manu Morlanes and Mallorca agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Àlex Sala 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sevilla in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Mallorca have no good answer.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Antoniu Roca 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.
Javi Llabrés and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Àlex Márquez after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
14 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
In brief
Player ratingsArnau Puigmal beats them one at a time
Mateo Joseph 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antoniu Roca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7.97, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Mallorca had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Mallorca are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Alavés scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad21 Sep 2026
David López 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Àlex Márquez was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Mallorca dressing room was either.
Osasuna next, and one man in the Mallorca dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Mallorca ran out of time with Almería. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antoniu Roca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Àlex Márquez after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mallorca can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antoniu Roca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Yago Santiago and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for John Chetauya
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. John Chetauya has come out of that comparison in the side, and Mallorca have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Adrián Fuentes has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Barcelona next, and one man in the Mallorca dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mallorca, another week without a signature from Josep Cerdà.
A brace, and Mateo Joseph takes the afternoon — 8.66
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mateo Joseph provided it, and the 8.66 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The chase for César Palacios ended with $7.6M changing hands and Real Madrid out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mallorca can pretend not to have heard.
Mallorca offered $680.0K; Real Madrid said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mateo Joseph has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Levante tried to reorganise, Mallorca did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
SquadDavid López falls out with a teammate over standards
The offer from Girona for Pablo Torre was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The offer went to Real Madrid this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
$4.0M was the most the club would pay and Barcelona were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $8.0M — a club that wants César Palacios enough to be asked twice.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Veracruz keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Mallorca and Elche have settled on $6.7M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Mallorca have gone to Real Madrid with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The offer went to Barcelona this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $740.2K — a club that wants David Alaba enough to be asked twice.
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.
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.
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Betis have kept their man, and Mallorca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Sevilla for Sergi Darder was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The fee is $1.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Pumas UNAM drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The deal with Veracruz is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The offer went to Real Madrid this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Mateo Joseph 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Pablo Lara has just signed for Mallorca, and for once the answer mattered.
The offer went to Pumas UNAM this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Mallorca hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Sergi Darder 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Mallorca are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mallorca, and both men came out saying it was fine.