Has Arrasate lost the dressing room?

We played another match to forget on Monday night going down 1-0 in Girona (their first win in three months), a result which sees Mallorca lying mid-table 10th on 44 points. Coach Arrasate (who, when he arrived last Summer, stated he wanted to play with two wingers) started with a five-man defence against Girona’s one striker! There were huge gaps down the right flank and the rest of our defenders looked confused and overwhelmed. We couldn’t find any difference in the substitutes brought on and the whole 94 minutes played was a disaster. If it hadn’t been for a brilliant display from Dominik Greif in goal, we could have been humiliated.

Local fans are now asking the question: how on earth did this team accumulate 30 points in the first half of the season and now we look a demoralised shambles? If we only took into consideration our results in the second half of the season, Mallorca would be fifth from bottom and the lowest-scoring team, tied with bottom-dweller Valladolid.

It now appears there’s trouble at t’mill in the Mallorca dressing room with several players openly showing disdain for coach Jagoba Arrasate and his system on the training ground, one player stating he didn’t sign a new contract to be stuck on the bench. Tattooed Portuguese midfielder Samu Costa has been particularly vociferous in his comments on the Basque coach. The question now being asked is: has Arrasate lost the dressing room? For the uninitiated, in layperson’s terms that means he’s lost the respect of some players who no longer believe in what the coach is saying or the direction they’re going in. There is generally one common denomination when a coach/manager loses the dressing room – poor results. Fortunately our objective of staying in top flight Spanish football for another season has been achieved and whatever these last four games throw at us it’s been a good campaign.
Several of our more seasoned players, including captain Antonio Raillo (who’s been with us since we were in the third flight of Spanish football in 2017/18) have intervened to try and keep the peace in the dressing room but it looks likely the troublemakers may be on their way during the Summer in a situation that’s not a good look for RCD Mallorca.

Arrasate has another two years on his contract and I can’t see him going anywhere, so he has to sort out the toxic atmosphere between himself and the aggrieved players. Arrasate, like any coach, has had to put up with injuries and suspensions and I have to say our sojourn to Saudi Arabia in January in the Spanish Super Cup was an unmitigated disaster in more ways than one.

After the Girona debacle, several of our players including Dani Rodriguez went over to the away end to clap the handful of Mallorca fans there, only to be insulted and even given death threats from some pubescent pond-life who certainly weren’t proper Mallorquinistas.

There’s still talk about us trying to get into European competition next season if we finish eighth. La Liga participation for us is vital and the demands of a Conference League place is for me not that important. History shows that modest teams in Spanish football ended up paying the price of playing in a European competition by being relegated the following year, some examples of which are Celta (2003/04), Zaragoza (2007/08), Villareal (2011/12), Betis (2012/13) and Espanyol (2019/20).

PS As if things weren’t bad enough at the moment, our B team were relegated recently and closed their season away at league winners Europa in Barcelona last Saturday. They had an unpleasant surprise when they realised they had forgotten their “kits” and the home side had to provide their away colours to allow the match to be played as normal – it was “normal” as Mallorca B lost 5-0! They will now compete in a league four categories below the first team, not good for strengthening the senior side from the academy.

AND FINALLY, seismologists at the University of Liverpool have said that after Liverpool won the Premier League title, celebrations caused an earth tremor not felt on Merseyside since Liz Kendall announced a crackdown on sickness benefits!