Marked for Gutierrez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan Scicluna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match12 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Boardroom14 Dec 2026
The numbers do not look good at St. Andrews
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Taylon gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Taylon is on it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The plan did not have a place for Gabriel Turnes
Nobody at St. Andrews is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Taylon leaves them behind him
Shots: 7. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Michael Zuo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Gianluca Bugeja falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Young player of the week: Guru
At 20 he was the best of everybody his age in the division for one weekend. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Market16 Nov 2026
Gutierrez linked with a move away
The name of Gutierrez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. St. Andrews say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” St. Andrews may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at St. Andrews training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryan Scicluna is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad12 Oct 2026
David Cauchi in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Andrews this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom12 Oct 2026
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at St. Andrews now.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
St. Andrews take on the side everybody is chasing
Balzan arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Hugo Sacco knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hugo Sacco trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market12 Oct 2026
11 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Taylon has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at St. Andrews will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at St. Andrews until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gutierrez and St. Andrews agree another 2 years.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The formation has left Gutierrez behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. St. Andrews will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Taylon is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Taylon has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at St. Andrews training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Galliano is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sirens in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market7 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Gutierrez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.