Once again, it’s been a while since I’ve updated on this save. To turn Ian Malcolm’s (Jurassic Park) quote on its head: “life gets in the way”. Playing time has taken a severe hit over the last few months because work has become so busy - but that’s not something I’ll ever complain about.
This post is a bumper double season update. I’ve become so accustomed to the struggles of my FM saves that once I seem to crack the code, the game somehow becomes less desirable to write about. Blogs about successful FM saves are very much in their abundance in the FMsphere that it becomes boring to read about yet another trophy laden story. In the same vein, it’s hard to work up a lot of enthusiasm in writing about them too, at least it is for me. However, this doesn’t for one second mean that I’ve stopped enjoying playing my game.
SEASON SIX - 2026/27
The previous season’s 7th place finish granted me a place in the UEFA Europa Conference League. For a club on our trajectory, this wasn’t something to be sniffed at, unlike how some bigger clubs or fans may view it in real life. We entered in the League Path Fourth Qualifying Round and faced Brondby IF of Denmark. a 6-1 aggregate win propelled Mallorca into Group B along with LASK (Austria), Slavia Prague (Czech Republic) and AEK Larnacas (Cyprus).
It wasn’t the easy ride that I expected it to be: a 1-1 draw at home to LASK set us off on an uneven footing. Slavia made us work to claim a 3-2 away win before we finally found a comfortable victory 2-0 at home to Larnacas. Our return fixtures were 0-0, 2-2 and 1-1 draws against Larnacas, Slavia Prague and LASK respectively. It was hard going but we qualified as second place in our group with LASK taking top spot.
In the first knockout round Portuguese side Estrela da Amadora SAD (their name, not a comment on my feelings towards them) held us to a scoreless draw in the first leg with a first minute Christian Vergara goal the deciding factor in the second leg. We were drawn with old pals LASK in the second knockout round and it was a much improved performance as Mallorca went through with an 8-1 aggregate win. Antwerp arrived at the Quarter Final stage and were duly sent on their way as we progressed 3-1 over two legs.
Yes, the draws had perhaps been kind to us, however, I still rejoiced at making a semi-final of a European competition at the first time of asking! Sadly, Aston Villa were too strong for us over two legs. Rafa Mir may not have set the English Premier League alight, but he was inspired in this tie as his two goals helped the Villains to a 3-1 aggregate score line to see them through to the Final. A final they went on to win at a canter with a 3-0 win over Spartak Moscow.
We’d been on the cusp of glory before in the Copa del Rey but 2027 was finally the year we brought the Cup back to Palma - 24 years on before the club’s first Spanish Cup victory.
Again, I am happy to concede that the draw was kind to us up to the point of our progression to the semi final. Faced with Barcelona, I was ready to just accept this as another good cup run. Barcelona’s 4-2 at the Son Moix in the first leg didn’t do us any many favours.
The team bounced back in incredible fashion, recording a 4-0 victory over Barcelona in their own grounds. I couldn’t believe it as I sat and watched goal after goal fire in!
Real Madrid were the masters of our destiny in last year’s Copa final. And, of course, their cup win was the very reason we ended up in European competition this season. You rarely go into a match against Real confident of getting anything. With 23 minutes gone we were 2-0 up and I still didn’t feel in any way comfortable, Alexander Juhl’s goal for Madrid on the half hour mark could have been the beginning of a massive comeback but we held out resolutely in our defence. Yerry Mina and a late, late showing from 1Gabriel Vidovic putting the cherry on top of the cake… 4-1 to Mallorca, Copa del Rey Champions 2026/27!
All I can say is, thank goodness for the Copa del Rey success! We finished 7 points worse off than last season which led to an 8th place finish. The CdR success being secured our European football for the following season.
Things started promisingly with back-to-back wins before we went on a three-game losing streak. Another two wins to round off September gave me some false hope before we went two whole months without a win - 2 draws and 6 defeats through October and November.
A switch to 4-1-4-1 DM saw a revival of form with 3 wins from 3 in December before a rollercoaster January that yielded 8 points from a potential 15. The bad form returned as we again embarked on a winless run that stretched to seven games. Another tactical switch back to our 4-2-3-1 helped us return to winning ways against Bilbao and Real Madrid. Sevilla, Barcelona and Levante took maximum points from us before we rounded off the season with wins over Tenerife, Cádiz and Valladolid.
Truthfully, I was just glad to get this season over as we flipped from sublime to ridiculous at the drop of a hat.
In keeping with the brief update, I’ll restrict the transfer update for this season. Pre-season we lost Nnamdi Collins to Real Madrid for £16.75m - he had been signed for just £1.1m from Dortmund and started to break into the first team in the second half of the season before. We also sold long term first choice goalkeeper Dominik Grief to Espanyol for £2m.Pietro Pellegri departed for Osasuna (Atlético Pamplona) for £5m having never really made the grade for us. We made just two signings in the summer with Pedro Camara coming in on loan from Manchester United while Sergio Rico was signed for £3.5m from Valencia.
In January, promising youngster Alejandro Reina was sold to Rosario Central for £5.75m - a move we were pushed to allow happen as he threatened to run down his contract because I decided to try and give him a run in the first team rather than loan him out to a fourth division side… Joshua Zirkzee moved on to Eintracht Frankfurt for £4m and another promising academy graduate Adama Sabally moved to Newcastle for £6m. Coming in was Shola Shoretire - another winger on loan from Manchester United. We also went back to our unofficial parent club Bayern to bring in Emmanuel Awono - a solid ball player in the midfield. The two permanent signings were at opposite ends of the spectrum: the experience of Diego Carlos was a shrewd short-term signing for £200k while Mostafa Gabr is most definitely a player I can see developing over the longer term.
SEASON SEVEN - 2027/28
We were granted a place in the Spanish Supercopa mini tournament thanks to our Copa del Rey victory last season. We were promptly turfed out following a 3-0 defeat to Valencia in our semi-final fixture. Moving on…
Speaking of the Copa del Rey - we made it to the Semi-Final once again but after a first leg defeat to Barcelona, we couldn’t repeat our heroics of the previous season.
I was very disappointed with our showing the the Europa League group stage. While I expected Leicester to be too strong for us, I did anticipate getting a lot more from Estrela da Amadora and Vitesse than the 6 points we ended the group with. A third-place finish resigned us to a drop down to the Europa Conference League knockout stages.
It was in the Europa Conference League that we finally found our form. Once again, you might say the draw was somewhat kind to us. Turkish Superlig Goztepe and League of Ireland side Shamrock Rovers were both set aside despite our poor second leg showings in each tie.
We progressed past Braga of Portugal thanks to penalties after 1-0 home victories for either side. Chelsea proved that one step too far as they struck us down 6-3 over two legs - I’ve now faced three English teams over six legs losing 100% of those games.
And so, with the morale boost of having reached three semi-finals through the season (the Supercopa counts…) we go on with the update of the league.
We suffered defeat just four times in the league before the winter break - Getafe, Barcelona, Valencia and Villarreal the victors in those occasions. We, largely, did what was necessary against the smaller teams but most importantly we managed to take significant points from those who would be challenging around us - with draws against the likes of Sevilla, Sociedad and Atlético Madrid.
If the first half of the season went well then, the second half went very well indeed. We only succumbed to defeat three times as the remainder of the season played out - again bested by Barcelona but strangely this time also by Zaragoza and Almería. Draws for the second time this season with Real Madrid, Sevilla and Atlético Madrid along with those important wins against “lower” sides helped us to exceed our expectations for the season.
An incredible third place finish will see Mallorca play Champions League football next season!
One significant departure this season as Yerry Mina becomes the latest Mallorca player to threaten to run down their contract, as such he leaves for Sassuolo in a deal worth £2.8m - It may be a net transfer loss of £7.2m but I definitely think we got our worth out of him with those 102 league appearances over three seasons on the island.
Feeling that the club is on solid ground in the immediate term, I’ve started to look towards the future and signing some good potential. Sebastián Piro is more than able with both feet and can play anywhere along the back. He’s also in the 6foot+ club so gets a massive tick on my defensive criteria list. £6m was the fee from River Plate - he also benefits from being a dual Italian national so will be counted as EU for registration purposes. Yasen Dimitrov is a 6-foot 6-inch behemoth centre back and well worth the £4.2m paid to Ludogorets.
Adrián Sosa is the second River Plate signing and also cost £6m. Flair, First Touch, Technique… he has massive potential to become an absolute dreamboat in the midfield for us. Sebastián Banguera is the last signing of the season, the Colombian forward was just £1.4m from América de Cali (Hi Mike!) but due to our 3 non-EU limit he was loaned out to Kawasaki Frontale in Japan for the season - 15 goals in 12 appearances there!
Qualifying for the Champions League is a very ‘make us or break us’ moment. I’ve switched the focus largely toward getting a young team who can grow and develop into something special, and I just hope that the Champions League qualification isn’t a step too soon because a bad campaign could seriously knock morale and throw the rest of the season off course.
I reckon I’ve probably got another two (maybe three at a push) seasons left in this save. With a solitary Copa del Rey win in the cabinet thus far, I’d at least like to see us add in another one before we’re knocking at the door of FM23.