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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
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.
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 ratingsThe pass was always on for Zito Luvumbo
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pol Reyes after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
“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.
8 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
3 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad14 Dec 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Pol Reyes after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
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.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
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.
“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.
Something was said to Alberto Moreno and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Pol Reyes on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Arnau Puigmal’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Mallorca needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
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.
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.
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 Aboubaka Soumahoro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Joaquín Tobio Burgos obliged against Mérida. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Mallorca.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Mallorca scored in the 97th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“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.
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.
At 21 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.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Martin Valjent scored, was marked 7.39, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“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.
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Àlex Sala 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 did not go to Real Sociedad to sit and watch. I want to come back to Mallorca and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The dugout2 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Pol Reyes to a room that had heard them before.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Martin Valjent is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Antoniu Roca was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.52. 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.
Marked 8.21 — 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Pol Reyes, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Àlex Sala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A mark of 7.67, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Pol Reyes, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
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.
Sevilla 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.
“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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Mallorca that is a harder question to answer.
Two goals and a mark of 8.60 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abdón Prats. 2‑0 against Villarreal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Zito Luvumbo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Pol Reyes, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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.
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.
10 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.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Pol Reyes was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Mallorca dressing room was either.
“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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Manu Morlanes’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Mallorca needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Sep 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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Pol Reyes 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Antonio Sánchez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“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 clock did what River Plate would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Mallorca close the window on a squad of their own making
17 in and 2 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.
The offer from Talavera for Javi Llabrés 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 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.
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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
$27.6M on the table at River Plate. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Joaquín Tobio Burgos has just signed for Mallorca, and for once the answer mattered.
Marked 8.15 — 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.
10 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.
Estudiantes 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Mallorca have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Alcorcón had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
1 for Sergi Darder, marked 7.93, 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zamora have kept their man, and Mallorca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
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.
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.
Mallorca offered $6.7M; 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.
The chase for Ezequiel Ávila ended with $1.9M changing hands and Betis out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $7.2M — a club that wants César Palacios 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Mallorca are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
Espanyol 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.
Manu Morlanes has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
“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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing 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. Jan Rubio is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jon Ramos 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Lucas Parra 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.
Squad10 Aug 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.
“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.