One in and one out at Mallorca

DURING a week when Arsenal fans were left sweating following rumours on Twitter suggesting the expected record signing of Mesut Ozil was off and he had failed his medical – after having an asthma attack from inhaling the dust from the club’s trophy cabinet ! – Real Mallorca brought in a striker on loan, offloaded another player and are stuck with one of their highest wage earners as their mini trolley-dash transfer window shut on Monday at midnight.
With just three games in the second division, bottom of the table Mallorca have only scored two goals and director of football, Lorenzo Serra Ferrer, has brought in a 31-year-old proven goal scorer on a season-long loan.
He’s Alex Geijo, who’s arrived from his parent club in Italy, Udinese, after a spell at Watford.
Geijo is the son of Spanish immigrants to Switzerland and was born in Geneva, but has a Spanish passport. Starting in the Swiss lower leagues, he moved to Malaga, then crossed Andalucia joining Xerez, where he scored 13 goals in his first season. In 2007/8 he went to Levante, when the club was severely hindered by financial problems. They eventually went down.
After scoring ten goals, he suffered a leg break before moving on to Racing Santander, where he spent four seasons, then was signed by Udinese. The Italian side and Granada became a partnership (they were joined by Watford two years ago). Geijo moved back to Andalucia where he scored 24 goals helping Granada to promotion. On 8 August 2012, he moved to Watford, where he scored his first goal last November.
He was on the verge of signing for Deportivo on Monday morning when, after having a medical, was about to put pen to paper when the club’s administrators stopped the deal going through.
Michael Pereira has moved to Granada once again on a season’s loan. The young Frenchman promised much when he broke into the first team three years ago (memorably nutmegging Andres Iniesta at the Nou Camp), but his early expectations never reached fruition.
He failed to keep a regular place in the first team and publicly displayed his dissatisfaction at not making enough appearances.
Mallorca have failed to offload Pedro Geromel, one of the club’s top earners. Deals were mentioned over the Summer, none of which have come to anything. It’s expected the Brazilian centre back will now become one of the mainstays of Mallorca’s defence then may move on in the next transfer window in January. Mallorca’s next game is against league leaders Alcorcon at 6 pm on Saturday. The Madrid side, who nearly went out of business a few weeks ago, are unbeaten and have yet to concede a goal. It’s a top against bottom clash and it’s a game Mallorca have to win to get the fans back on their side.
PS The Gareth Bale money-making machine has begun in earnest. His no. 11 shirts have now gone on sale at the Bernabeu shop at 86.51 euros each and the club expect to sell 40,000 this season. Most of these shirts are made in some Bangladeshi sweat-shop for a pittance.

AND FINALLY, a wife suspected that her husband was having a dalliance with his new, sexy, professional assistance, so one day she decided to try and catch him out by calling in at his office unannounced.
Sure enough, she walked in to find the PA sitting on her husband’s lap. Without hesitation, he dictated “And in conclusion, gentlemen, regardless of cutbacks and shortages, I cannot continue to operate with just one chair.”