Real Mallorca season ticket sales reach 17,000

Larin had accepted Mallorca’s financial package a while ago but Valladolid have expressed their intentions not to let go of one of their best players for less than 8 million euros. Valladolid’s relegation has had a direct impact on the club’s coffers and economy and they are aware of the need to sell one of their stars in order to survive next season in La Segunda. Larin is expected to sign a contract for four years plus another optional season.

Our offer is very close to what Valladolid are asking for so a deal looks imminent. Then Larin would become Vedat Muriqi’s forward companion so the team will have two proven goal-scorers, something they badly lacked last season when the responsibility rested fairly and squarely on Muriqi’s shoulders.

This scenario is what’s called a “slow burner.” Larin has not yet joined Valladolid in pre-season training as he’s been in Jamaica with the club’s lawyer to process his dual nationality, which stops him being a non-EU footballer in Europe due to something called the Colonou agreement.

Wednesday night saw Mallorca comfortably beat local part-timers Poblense 0-5 in the annual agricultural cup in Sa Pobla. On Saturday (July 29) Mallorca play English Championship side Sunderland in their Stadium of Light, kick off at 4pm Palma time.

The actual La Liga EA Sports FC 2023/24 campaign kicks off for us away at newly-promoted Las Palmas on Saturday, August 12 at 19:30.

Real Mallorca’s ambitious goal of reaching 20,000 season ticket sales is beginning to look possible. Once the second phase of remodelling the Son Moix has been finished on January 8, the expected capacity is to be 24,985.

Mallorca’s website crashed on Tuesday as around 1,000 new people went online to buy a season ticket. Record sales happened in 2001/02 when 18,500 were sold in the season we qualified for the Champions League.

Excitement is reaching fever pitch as the club will play their third consecutive season in the First division and their fourth in the last five years. We spent 16 years in the top flight from 1997 – 2013 which was the greatest success in the club’s 107 year history.

Our director of football, Pablo Ortells, has his mobile phone attached to his ear at the moment as he negotiates the signing of at least another four or five players before the transfer window shuts at the end of next month.

Replacing Kang In Lee and Galarreta will be nigh on impossible and his job isn’t made any easier as transfer fees are set to spiral out of control. The market prices are smashing all records due to the intervention of Saudi Arabia which is making the movement of players very expensive and the money offered Mbappe for a one-year loan deal beggars belief.

Back in the day, football had a relatively easy system, players were selected from local talent and a team’s success was measured by the skill of its home-grown force. In the 1950s/60s with travel shrinking the world, league teams began to cast their net further afield. Transfer fees were moderate but soon became ridiculous as inflation set in.

I’m old enough to remember Fulham’s Johnny Haynes becoming the first 100 quid a week player and Trevor Francis (who’s sadly died this past week) being the first one million pound transfer. Now there’s talk about a £1 BILLION player!

Back then money was raised from gate money. The more fans pushing through the turnstiles, the higher the income. As transfer deals nowadays branch out all over the globe, clubs’ costs soared as they had to look elsewhere for cash injections. Rich Arabs, oligarchs, Chinese and Americans became the paymasters as clubs brought in players from outside Europe, which now sees (in England) imported players being in the majority.

PS Talking about the old days in football, I once went to see my home town team, Raith Rovers, as they had their usual end of season fight against relegation. One game I missed kick off to answer the call of nature after quaffing several pints of Heavy. Just as I was about to join the crowd, a huge cheer went up. I asked a man who was entering the toilet “Have the Rovers scored ?” and he answered “No, pal, the pies have just arrived !”

AND FINALLY, The Last 10 Pence.

A father walks into a restaurant with his young son. He gives the boy three 10 pence coins to play with to keep him occupied. Suddenly, the boy starts choking and going blue in the face. The father realises his son is choking and starts slapping him on the back. The boy coughs up two of the coins but is still choking. Looking at his son, the father panics and shouts for help.

A well-dressed, attractive and serious woman in a blue business suit is sitting at the bar reading a newspaper and drinking a latte. At the sound of the commotion, she looks up, puts her coffee down, neatly folds the paper and places it on the bar and moves towards the boy. She carefully pulls down his pants, takes hold of the boy's testicles and begins to squeeze and twist gently at first, then tighter and tighter!! After a few seconds the boy convulses violently and coughs up the last 10p coin. Releasing the boy's testicles, the woman hands the coin to the father and walks slowly back to her seat at the bar.

Checking his son is all right, the father rushes over to the woman to say thanks. “I've never seen anybody do that before, are you a doctor?” “No,” she replies, “I'm with the tax office.”