Cheats, monsters and paradise: How Javier Aguirre and new owners turned Mallorca around
Javier Aguirre (64) is the type of man, who sometimes divides opinion, but there is no denying he is thrilling company. Extremely charismatic, more often than not with a big smile on his face, he comes across as very polite when meeting a bunch of journalists for a media-sitting.
Whereas many coaches act like they'd rather have a root canal treated than talking to the press, Aguirre seems happy to share his visions and goals for his current club, RCD Mallorca.
The above-mentioned statement comes after being asked to give an opinion on the current state of VAR in the Spanish game.
“I love VAR! I love it because it creates justice, you know. If there's a clear offside and the linesman didn't see, okay, then VAR is perfect. The referees suffer a lot of pressure, okay, maybe they make a mistake, of course they do. I do, everybody does," Aguirre explains, before telling how much the players try to cheat even him on the training ground.
He does that with tongue in cheek, just like when he recently called the team's top scorer a “weird, ugly monster", to which the man in question, Vedat Muriqi (29), replied, “He's right, I am. And he's not so handsome either!"
One suspects Aguirre would have cracked up laughing when hearing that reply and the banter says a lot about the state of Mallorca these days. Founded in 1916 the club has endured some tough times in recent years, culminating in relegation to Segunda B in 2017. The third tier of Spanish football.
In March 2022 the club found itself on a six-game losing streak in LaLiga, when Aguirre arrived. After losing his first match in charge, things started to improve. Mallorca secured another season on the final day of the campaign, before finishing ninth last season. Only three points separated the Los Piratas from reaching the Europa Conference League. A huge improvement and Aguirre obviously loves coaching on the island.
“It is very easy for me. It's one big family. The players, the gardener, the kitchen staff, everybody, it's like an extension of my house," Aguirre explains with another big smile, before stating the obvious.
“I'm really comfortable, really happy here in Mallorca. It's very easy to me to do my job, you know, I'm the oldest of all, the guy with most experience. It is the perfect situation and a very nice place to develop the game."
Development has been key since American Andy Kohlberg stepped in back in 2016 with the club 45 million euros in debt. Seven years later the stadium has had a comprehensive makeover and Kohlberg has brought in two NBA legends, Steve Kerr and Steve Nash, as major shareholders.
The fans responded this season with record sales in season-tickets, an obvious sign of them buying into the project launched by Kohlberg and co. and Aguirre is adamant more Mallorcans need to get involved.
“We need to develop the academy of Mallorca. We lost Kang-In Lee (22), and brought in two or three good players. But in my opinion, we have to put money in the academy. We need good managers, good coaches, good teachers, good everything. They have to go to the school; they have to eat well. We have to develop that," Aguirre stresses, pointing out that this is the biggest difference to when he coached Osasuna.
“There, I used to have around 80% of players from Navarra in the academy, which was strong and I had 16-17 players from the academy in my team. Right now, we have three or four from the island. I need more than that, because local players feel the team."
Brought in to help assess what kind of state the club was in, when Kohlberg and his team took over in 2016 was former Premier League great, Graeme Le Saux (54). He is still involved in a liaison role to this day and is able to verify that a lot of changes have already taken place at the club who sensationally finished third back in 1999.
“We didn't have a player's canteen when we first arrived. That completely didn't sit with me. The Spanish, the Italians, the French will spend all day talking about the quality of a cup of coffee and yet you're at a Spanish football club and there's no canteen for the players before or after training. That for me was a key piece of infrastructure that we needed to put in," says Le Saux about just one of the improvements made after a thus far 60 million euro investment from the owners.
What it all leads to, only time will tell, but there's no doubt Javier Aguirre is thrilled to be along for the ride.
“It's very nice to be here. I think, we are kind of a family. It's a paradise."
Follow Mallorca this weekend when they take on Real Sociedad with Flashscore.