Former Scotland international and RCD Mallorca defender Alan Hutton sat down with Get Spanish Football News to discuss his time in Spain with his former team.
Can you tell me a little bit about your time at Mallorca and any memories that really stand out for you?
The whole experience was absolutely brilliant. It’s something that I’d not gone through before. In terms of going to a different country and playing. It came out the blue from an agent I knew up in Scotland. It happened really quickly. In terms of experiences, it was like night and day from England or Scotland. Its culture was very different, where we’d go train with the team and then after that we’d go down to the beach and all sit and have a laugh. It was something I’ve never experienced. There wasn’t that pressure down on your shoulder where every day people are saying things to you in the press or the media, and it wasn’t like that; it was about enjoying your football. And to have the chance to go and play at some of the stadiums, Atlético de Madrid, it was obviously the old one [The Vicente Calderón Stadium] at the time, the Mestalla, going to the Bernabéu, the Nou Camp. All these things were just incredible for me. And also the overall look at football, even though we were a smaller team, it was go and play and go and attack. You were going to Real Madrid or Barcelona, and we want to play our game. Obviously, ultimately, we were playing against top opposition. But it was what we did. And I’ve never really come across that before, to go and attack those big teams. I thought the whole experience was brilliant, and ever since then, I always go back. My brother-in-law was there two weeks ago at a Mallorca game. It made an impression on us all. It was just a brilliant time for me.
You mentioned the move came about quite quickly. How did the move first materialise, and what were your initial thoughts?
I’m going to be brutally honest with you: I didn’t know Mallorca had a team. It was an agent that I knew from Glasgow, John Viola, it was kind of out of the blue. He said, ‘I’ve got this opportunity; would it be something you fancied?’ I needed to think about it. I wasn’t playing for Aston Villa at the time, and it was coming close to the end of the [transfer] window. I looked up the team and saw that Giovani Dos Santos was there, who I played with at Spurs. I was kind of like, ‘Alright, let’s just do it. I need to go and play. Let’s just do it. It’s something totally different.’ And it happened, really quickly after that. It was just get out here, fly over, and do everything we need to do. And as soon as I got there, I just felt at home. Everybody was really good around me. The staff that was looking after me. Everything was just perfect, and I felt that this was the place to be.
Can you tell me a bit more about Giovani Dos Santos? When he first emerged, he was talked about as being on the path to being one of the best players in the world.
You’re right, when he first came to Tottenham from Barcelona. I thought this boy was going to be the real deal; he’s going to be the next big thing – technical ability, he had pace, he could make something out of nothing. For some reason, it didn’t quite work at Tottenham. I don’t really know why. He left there, and when I got to Mallorca, you could tell that he was the star man. The fans loved him. And it was [all about] can we get the ball into him in dangerous areas. He could score the goals that we need. I think he went to America after that. I don’t really know why he didn’t go to the next level, because the talent was there. You could see it every day, be it in training or in games. It came very easy to him, and I don’t know if that was maybe a bit of a hindrance, because when you have technical ability, you need to work harder to get to the next level. You see that throughout careers. If you’ve got talent and you don’t work, you kind of taper off a little bit. Whether that was the reason, I’m not sure. But he had everything to make it to the top, so I don’t really know why that didn’t quite happen.
You were playing in La Liga at a time I think many people in the UK consider to be a golden era for the league. What did you make of it?
I just loved every moment of it because in our team, we had technically gifted players. It was all about what we’d done on the pitch. We weren’t really focusing on the other teams, even though they were much better and bigger in stature than us. It was what we’d done against them, and I’d never really experienced that. But to go and put your talents and skills up against some of the best players was just really exciting for me. Going against Real Madrid and being up against Cristiano Ronaldo was something you don’t really dream of. You don’t really think of yourself playing in La Liga, so to have done it was amazing. Even just thinking back, it seems like a crazy situation to sit here and talk about how I’ve actually done that and played against some of these brilliant football teams. It’s something I look back on very fondly.
Thinking about the environment in Mallorca, and playing your games on an island. Was that in itself a culture shock for you?
Yes, I suppose it was. Flying to every away game, things like that. It was a case of when you left the stadium or left the training ground, that was it. You had the freedom to do what you wanted. You weren’t getting stopped in the town. You weren’t getting asked for pictures or this or that. There weren’t too many interviews to be done. You turned up, you had your work, you did your work, you worked hard, and then you left. It was something I hadn’t really experienced before. I think over in Scotland or England, there’s always that pressure. There’s always that media spotlight on you. There’s always people that want to talk to you and ask you questions. You just didn’t get that over there. You could just totally switch off. When you were at football, you’d give it a hundred per cent, and you were all in and focused. But when you left the building, it was like a total different culture – a little bit like you were on holiday. As long as you put everything into the pitch or in training, you could have your off time. It was a strange dynamic, but I did get used to it, I must admit [laughs].
Did you want to stay there beyond the loan?
So what had happened was, we got relegated, which of course wasn’t ideal. I came back home and was in discussion with Mallorca. I loved it that much, I went, ‘I don’t care, I want to go back.’ I had three years, I think, left at Villa. And the whole house was packed up, ready to get shipped across, because we were going. And I bumped into an ex-player at the time; our kids went to the same school, and we were chatting away and talking about it, and he basically said to me, and it’s always stuck in my mind, ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’ He said, ‘If you go over there and it doesn’t work. How are you getting back here? What team are you going to go to back here?’ And it stuck with me forever. I left the school and went back home and told my wife, who’d packed everything up, ‘We’re staying; we can’t go. I need to stay here and try and fight for my place.’ So, as much as I wanted to, it hit home speaking to other people about the situation. Mallorca struggled after that relegation; they went down the leagues, so it probably turned out it was the right move for me at that time to just stay where I was.
Alan Hutton was speaking exclusive to GSFN on behalf of Best Betting Bonuses.
