After a week when slow walker lanes for people distracted by their phones were installed in Manchester – a survey showed a staggering 75% of Brits say they are guilty of walking and using their phones at the same time! – Real Mallorca are going for back to back home wins tonight at 5 pm when they play Real Sociedad in the Son Moix. The Basque side haven’t won in Palma since 2003.
Tonight’s opponents have been transformed during the Summer after finishing ninth last season.
Bolstering their options are two Scandinavian youngsters, 20-year-old Norwegian Martin Odegaard (on loan from Real Madrid) and 19-year-old Swedish international (now being called his country’s new Zlatan Ibrahimovic) Alexander Isak.
Add to that the Belgian international and Manchester United reject Adnan Januzaj, plus the Brazilian hit man Willian Jose, and our defence will have to be on their game.
There are also two Spanish internationals in mid-field, Martin Illarramendi and Mikel Oyarzabal. Binissalem-born and ex Real Mallorca keeper Miguel Angel Moya is likely to start for the visitors and is sure to be given a good reception from home fans – unlike in England where they tend to boo returnees!
Mallorca coach Vicente Moreno is expected to pick a team unchanged from the one which beat Eibar 2-1 last week.
He gave away no clues as to whether our two new signings will get any game time tonight. One of them is 18-year-old baby-faced Japanese international, Kubo, who has been making headlines all over social media, both here and in his native Japan – 9,000 Twitter, 5,000 Instagram and 1,000 Facebook as of Friday night.
At the pre-match press conference the coach stated that despite all the hype regarding Kubo, he will be treated the same as all the other players.
Moreno said “he has two arms and two legs and will not get preferential treatment, whether he plays some of the game or not is incidental.”
Moreno added “I’m 100% focussed on Real Sociedad.”
Kubo officially joined Real Mallorca on loan from Real Madrid on Thursday.
He shone throughout pre-season with Zinedine Zidane’s charges and there were even some who suggested he could be given a chance in the senior team this season.
In the end it was decided that Castilla’s (Madrid’s B team) matches would not have been beneficial due to the poor standard of football and the fact that opponents tend to kick massive lumps out of you!
Real Madrid’s coaches will monitor Kubo’s time here very closely with it seen that he will be very much involved with the senior team next season.
Madrid’s president Florentino Perez wasn’t willing to let Kubo waste a season of development and believes top level experience will see him return to the Bernabeu a much better player. His loan deal is huge for Real Mallorca and Japanese paparazzi are already here.
General manager Maheta Molango was given carte blanche from owner Robert Sarver to make Kubo’s signing top priority. Molango then had to talk to Jose Angel Sanchez, the Real Madrid director of football, telling him that Mallorca would be the best option for Kubo, rather than Valladolid or Leganes.
Molango and director of football Javi Recio have put Real Mallorca back on the world footballing map with Kubo’s arrival, the same thing Mateu Alemany (now at Valencia) did with Samuel Eto’o in 99/00, exciting times.
Another signing is 28-year-old Congolese/French utility forward Yannis Salibur.
He’s played for French Ligue 2 club Guingamp last season on loan from his parent Ligue 1 side St. Etienne. Salibur signed a three-year deal.
Kubo and Salibur brought our Summer signings up to 10 with a Colombian right winger from Watford, “Cucho” Hernandez expected some time early this coming week.
Referees in Spain have been instructed to clamp down on tackles targeting the area of the Achilles tendon.
Every year, especially in Spanish football, referees begin the season fixated on a particular facet of the play and wreak havoc in the opening weeks of the campaign then, after a while, they get over it and things slowly return to normal.
What the new initiative means is that if a player is chasing an opponent, the player uses the cynical foul that’s seen so often, i.e. racking their studs down the back of a players ankle, the offence which up until last weekend was a yellow card offence will now, in Spain, become a sending-off offence.
Just how Spanish referees officiating in a European game will interpret the law remains to be seen.
AND FINALLY, two kids are playing football in a Manchester park when suddenly one of the kids is attacked by a massive Staffordshire bull terrier.
The other kid finds a plank of wood and shoves it under the dog’s collar, twists it and breaks the dog’s neck.
A man also in the park witnesses the incident and says to the second kid “That was amazing, I’m a journalist for the Manchester Evening News, I would like to write a piece about what just happened.”
He starts writing the headline “United fan saves friend from killer dog.” The kid says “I’m not a United fan.” The journalist starts again, “City fan saves friend from killer dog.”
The kid pipes up again “I’m not a City fan either.” The journalist asks “Well, who do you support?” The kid answers “Liverpool.”
Next day the headline reads “Scouse hooligan murders family pet in cold blood!”
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