Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

Never let it be said that things always go swimmingly here. Take yesterday, for example. Flicker, flicker - out. Power. Out. Seven hours. No power. Fantastic. It was a "breakdown" in the system. Yes, I think we gathered that. According to the "Diario", the outage was caused by a lightning strike on the power station in Alcúdia, and this caused a loss of electricity to the whole island, some parts of which had service restored more quickly. The thing is that the storm was not that violent, by Mallorcan standards, and indeed it had eased off when the lights went out.

It's rubbish though really, isn't it. The electricity company, GESA-Endesa, has form. Back in 2003, during that horrendously hot summer, there was an outage that lasted for some twelve hours in some parts of the island (six where I was concerned). They put that down to demand because of air-con systems. Whatever. The company was given a sound metaphorical public thrashing, pants down, by the government and told that under no circumstances must this happen again. Well, what do you know?


Meantime, I couldn't of course let the Real Mallorca story lie. So, with rather more sober an assessment ...

It has ended in the mess some had predicted. Paul Davidson was not prepared to make a ten per cent deposit, and so the deal is off. Grande is talking of seeking compensation.

How did it come to this? Without wishing to boast of any great foresight, I recall saying to someone in the very early days of the Davidson bid that it would end in tears. There was something that was never quite right about the whole thing. The bid seemed to be made almost on a whim, the price was significantly higher than that offered by Freddy Shepherd, the Davidson strategy for branding and recycling through the club's name and in Mallorca, while intriguing, was always questionable in its peculiarity and its vagueness. And why were there no other serious bidders, other than Shepherd with his lower valuation? Was it the price, or is Real Mallorca just simply not a great investment?

One is left to conclude that he was serious in purchasing the club. Why otherwise would he have gone to the lengths of the legal costs he has had to pay and why would he have appointed the former Everton chief executive to the board of his company as a non-exec? Is it all down to a difficulty in raising the money? It would be understandable that his circumstances might have changed over the months of the pursuit of the club which have been coincidental with the full impact of the economic and credit crises. He has himself pointed to the economic conditions. Perhaps he had hoped for some assistance, and his connections to the Middle East and the presence of a sheikh on that same board of directors have not gone uncommented upon. But Mr. Davidson insisted that it would be he, and he alone, who financed any deal.

There are no winners in any of this, only losers - Mr. Davidson, Vicente Grande, the club, the fans, the reputation of British investment and, I'm sorry to have to say, the "Majorca Daily Bulletin". Or maybe there have been some winners - those elements of the Spanish media that cast doubt on the whole deal.

When the Davidson bid first surfaced, it was painted as an indication of the willingness of the British to invest in Mallorca and of the attractions of the island as a place for investment - it could sure do with some hefty foreign investment. The abandonment of the purchase leaves a general British reputation in tatters. The failure to go through with the deal is likely to be taken as evidence that British investors cannot be trusted. It's a harsh conclusion, but not an impossible one. There was hostility to a foreigner buying the club, but a willingness to go along with this if it brought the club stability and success. Now all that is left is a "told-you-so" xenophobia.

Stories like the Davidson saga don't come along often in Mallorca. For The Bulletin it was manna from heaven. Along the tortuous path to the denouement we now have, there were headlines of the "real deal" variety and the eight-page special that greeted the arrangement that has now not been consummated. The paper was generally dismissive of the negativity in the Spanish press, despite legitimate doubts that were being expressed, and as recently as 1 November offered reasons as to why the deal would still proceed. The problem, however, is that there had been an absence of objectivity; it was as though the paper was in thrall to the idea of a British owner and cast aside the sort of balance that the story demanded. The tone of its reporting changed yesterday in light of the collapse of the deal; maybe they realised that, having been a cheerleader, all that was left were boos and having being made to look daft. It had probably been lining up its regular "new dawn" headline to herald the once-and-for-all acquisition. I have one. For Mr. Davidson, the plumber and the man of the piping business - "Piper at the gates of dawn". Except there is no dawn, until, that is, or if the deal is revived. That would seem most unlikely.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Eagles, "Desperado" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umw1-Do3-ho). Today's title - an album by?

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