Vicente Moreno, Mallorca's coach during a training session. | P. BOTA

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After a week when a guy called James Brown glued himself to the top of a BA plane at London City airport during the Extinction Rebellion protest – as police arrived to remove him one was heard to sing Get up offa that thing!

With the second international break of the season happening this weekend, Real Mallorca have 48 hours off from their preparations before facing the mighty Real Madrid, in front of a full Son Moix next Saturday at 9 pm.

If anybody who hasn’t been invited to Rafa Nadal’s wedding is thinking about buying a ticket for this game – don’t bother – the “Agotado” (sold out) signs were in place on Wednesday morning.

As expected, the game is building up to a crescendo of expectation and promises to have more high drama than Coleen Rooney’s Twitter account!

Coach Vicente Moreno has a full squad available as he awaits the return of Trajkovski, Kubo and Valjent from their respective international duties.

During this past week parts of the already immaculate Son Moix playing surface were reseeded so the pitch should look perfect for the massive worldwide TV audience.

I can’t bang on enough about getting to the Son Moix AT LEAST one hour before kick-off.
Leaving it to the last minute will likely mean parking miles away. The No. 8 EMT Palma bus from Plaza España will operate every 10 minutes from 7 pm and stops right outside the ground. The same frequency will take place after the game.

Last Sunday’s Espanyol game saw the 100th game in charge for our coach Vicente Moreno, one of the three best managers in the club’s 106 year history.

44 year old Moreno has in the space of just over two years won 47, drawn 28, lost 25, 125 goals have been scored with 85 conceded. In total he’s been coach eight times in La Liga, 42 in La Segunda and 38 in Segunda B.

There’s also the fact that on his watch he’s gained two promotions in as many years.
He recently signed a lucrative new contract tying him to the club until 2022 and he has the ability of bringing the best out of average players, turning some of them into top class performers.

His dream to manage in the top flight of Spanish football has come true and although the challenges this season will make our La Liga survival difficult, with Moreno at the helm our chances are good.

A few weeks ago I wrote about American owner (a billionaire merchant banker) Robert Sarver and his attempts to hurry along ground alteration plans which were submitted to the local authorities six months ago. One of the ideas was to get the go-ahead on removing the dreaded Son Moix running track, and the other was getting permission to open an accommodation block in the Son Bibiloni training ground for our youth academy players.

EL DUEÑO DEL REAL MALLORCA ROBERT SARVER LLEGA A LA ISLA PARA PARTICIPAR EN EL CENTENARIO DEL CLUB.

Rober Sarver, Real Mallorca's owner.

It’s all gone quiet on the Son Moix idea, but the Son Bibiloni plan has been knocked back by the island council. Son Moix is owned by Palma council and Son Bibiloni by a different set of numpties. They’re now saying that because they only took over after local elections last May, plans will have to be re-examined.

As far as I know, everything is built and ready to go. It’s bureaucracy gone mad and what makes it worse is that Sarver has used his own money for the Bibiloni improvements.
The people in authority should be bending over backwards to help the club (especially when they’re back in La Liga) not hindering their progress.

Sarver has instructed the club to drastically reduce the VIP boxes (freebies) for Saturday’s big game, for which 20 applications have already been received.

All these politicians who wouldn’t previously have considered darkening the Son Moix with their presence have now been told where to go.

Sarver is playing a dangerous game of Boris-style brinkmanship, something he’s done before. A few months ago he threatened to take his basketball team, Phoenix Suns (who play in the NBA) out of the city because of the blockade initiated by Phoenix City Council.
They caved in and gave Sarver all the help he wanted.

He has invested A LOT of money in Real Mallorca and isn’t being helped by the powers that be who don’t seem to understand Sarver’s positive intentions.

The other day I saw that someone had won a Porsche in a Spot the Ball competition. Back in the day our family huddled round the kitchen gaslight (only kidding) over the formica-topped table to nail the crucial decision of the week, where’s the bloody ball?

My old man would summon up the courage to commit a nib to the centre of the cross and pinpoint what looked like the likeliest whereabouts of the sphere.

The key in the mid ‘60s was to think outside the box, well outside the box, as the ball was seldom anywhere near the 18 yard area.

Why did the players never look at the ball?
When the results came out in the next Sunday’s Reynolds News, the ball was never even close to where the X was. My father reckoned the referee had nicked the ball and stuck it up his shirt or it had rolled away down the hill as many Scottish grounds then had slopes like the Cresta Run.

I got a clip round the ear for suggesting a streaker (pre Erica Rowe) had momentarily distracted the players. We did however come close once – Mrs McGillicuddy next door won a major prize, 10 shillings and sixpence!

PS Fan’s View will be back on SATURDAY to preview the big game.