Pre-season gets off to a slow start for Malaga

The players participated in light training at the facilities adjoining La Rosaleda stadium on both Monday and Tuesday while they took it in turns to head to the Andalusian Centre of Sports Medicine at the Carranque sports complex to the west of the city for a series of physical examinations.

Training camp

On Wednesday, the players headed to Estepona for the second phase of pre-season. The players met fans as they checked into the Exe Thalasso hotel before heading to the Marbella Football Center for on-field work.

This phase of pre-season will be physically the most demanding until the team's first friendly match on Friday 26 July in Algeciras. It will be during this time that the remaining absentees will return to join the group.

Movement expected soon

While there are no new players through the door just yet, there are believed to be a number of transfers in the pipeline, according to SUR sources.

With many of the players for whom Malaga are seeking moves away now physically part of the group, it is expected that activity will pick up soon.

This is also fast becoming a necessity. Even though Jack Harper, Rajko Brezancic, Mehdi Lacen and Miguel Torres have moved on, Malaga are still far from complying with wage cap regulations.

As SUR in English reported last week, the club has accepted offers for Jony and Javi Ontiveros. However, one obstacle is club president Sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani. The club must wait for Al-Thani to sign off on any transfers.

Jony is already in Rome ahead of a loan move to Lazio, while the club has reached an agreement with Villarreal for the transfer of Javi Ontiveros. However, neither deal, which would free up significant funds, can go through without the sheikh's say-so.