A fter a week when England players are acclimatising in tents in Girona to replicate the heat they’ll experience at the World Cup next Summer – Scotland meanwhile will prepare by laying on sunbeds and ordering piña coladas – Real Mallorca’s director of football Pablo Ortells’ “to do” list just got more complicated with each passing day of the so-called close season.
At present we’re in the middle of the first transfer window which shuts on Tuesday (June 10). The main window then opens on Monday June 16 until 7pm on Monday September 1. As happens every summer, rumours are rife about departures and in-comings, something I’ll be writing about over the coming weeks. On Wednesday the first to put pen to paper on a two-year contract extension was 25-year-old Mateo Morey from Petra.
Ortells must bring in new blood but that can’t be achieved without transferring players first. Any players expected to leave who have contracts at the club will have to be paid their outstanding salaries (unless they wish to leave), which is a huge burden for Real Mallorca as paying players off limits the budget available to strengthen the squad. The ideal scenario for the club involves transferring Van der Hayden, Larin, Samu Costa, Maffeo and one of the two goalkeepers. Enough money must be raised to sign a left winger and a second striker. Also a midfielder/creator wouldn’t go amiss.
Another massive headache for Ortells is that our squad has become old in key positions, so it’s essential to bring in new young blood. The average age of the team that played our last game against Rayo Vallecano two weeks ago was 30 years old. The oldest was Dani Rodriguez at 36 and Samu Costa was the youngest at 24. As local football news is thin on the ground this weekend, by way of a change Fan’s View looks at Scottish football and in particular a club called Arbroath who sealed the Scottish League One title recently.
WIND STOPS PLAY
On the windy east coast of Scotland in a ground called Gayfield (before the first part had connotations other than “happy”) and in a place called Arbroath (famous for its “smokies”) my story begins.
Allegedly the coldest ground in England is Oldham’s Boundary Park and the coldest stadium in Spain’s top leagues is Jose Zorrilla, home to La Segunda side Valladolid. However, these two grounds pale into insignificance when it comes to the windiest in the UK, and that’s at Gayfield Park, where the North Sea breeze has more bite than a dodgy Scotch pie. It’s the closest ground to the sea in the UK where the wind is part of the game.
Many, many moons ago, I rocked up at Gayfield to watch them play my home team Raith Rovers. When I went to buy my ticket before kick-off, I handed over a £5 note and the guy in the ticket window asked if I wanted a striker or a defender! As I had arrived in Arbroath it looked like a storm was brewing and I remembered reading about fish being storm-tossed onto the pitch and a player was knocked over by a wave while trying to take a corner kick. As the game started the wind turned into a gale as both sides strived to play football. Matters weren’t helped when one of the corner flags was horizontal because of the buffeting it was getting. It was so windy, I remember seeing herring gulls flying backwards.
This match then entered another dimension as the ball became like a balloon. It blew all over the place with 20 men chasing after it. Then just after half time, after Raith Rovers fans had changed ends, came the highlight. Our ’keeper Bobby Reid was having a torrid time trying to take a goal kick. He planted the ball on the edge of his six-yard box and retreated a few paces (no playing out from the back in those days).
The ball rolled 10 yards to the right as Bobby ran after it before putting it back where it was. He made another tentative retreat in preparation to “lump it” up to the other end. The ball blew away again as the referee gave Reid the hurry up signal whilst pointing to his watch – it was hardly Bobby’s fault.
Then out of the blue appeared one of the ground staff carrying a bucket of sand purloined from the nearby beach. Bobby made a small molehill with the ball nestling neatly on top.
His clearance sailed into the grey sky, the ball suddenly paused in mid-air then started to fall back downwards in the direction of Raith Rovers’ goal. Our goalkeeper was forced to make a “worldy” save from his own clearance kick ! After 70 minutes of complete farce with neither side looking remotely like scoring, the referee blew his whistle to end this absurdity – match abandoned ! In 1993 Arbroath played Celtic in a Scottish Cup tie at Gayfield. Arbroath lost 1-9 and their then manager (ex Celtic and Scotland legend Danny McGrain) commented “It was the eighth goal that killed us off !”
AND FINALLY, what’s in a name ? (1) If Yoko Ono had married Sonny Bono, she’d be Yoko Ono Bono; (2) If Dolly Parton had married Salvador Dali, she’d be Dolly Dali; (3) If the rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg married Winnie the Pooh, he’d become Snoop Doggy Dogg Pooh; (4) If ex Generation Game hostess Isla St Clair married Talk Sports’ Jim White before splitting up and taking the plunge with Brian Ferry, she’d become Isla White Ferry; (5) If Koo Stark got hitched to Benedict Cumberbatch, she would become Koo Cumberbatch; and (6) If Carrie Fisher got hitched to Human League’s front man Phil Oakey, she’d be Carrie Oakey!