Marked for Arli Pergjoni
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Jan 2028
Full time on the season at Bylis
Position 10 on 13 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Squad17 Jan 2028
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market17 Jan 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bylis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market17 Jan 2028
Ofori McCarthy has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bylis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Bylis
Gjorgi Stoilov 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 dugout17 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Ibrahim Akibu has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Bylis is pretending otherwise.
Squad17 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Bylis
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Vieira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Ousmane Kane is still paying for one afternoon at Bylis
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Match15 Jan 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Nov 2027
The wait goes on for Bylis
12 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market22 Nov 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bylis is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Bylis
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gjorgi Stoilov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match20 Nov 2027
0‑1 to Partizani Tirana, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sokol Sala after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad22 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Bylis
Ofori McCarthy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Pedro Vieira knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bylis, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead22 Nov 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Fabjan Përndreca’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Bylis needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market13 Sep 2027
Pedro Vieira hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bylis can pretend not to have heard.
Market13 Sep 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Manuel Hajrullaj will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bylis the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rabiu Abdullahi and Bylis agree another 4 years.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Tempers go at Bylis
Gjorgi Stoilov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match11 Sep 2027
Bylis cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match11 Sep 2027
Dinamo City left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Roberts Ozols
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
The game went through Kristian Gjini — 6.76
Marked 6.76 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Sokol Sala to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout3 May 2027
This is not rotation. Gjorgi Stoilov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Bylis is pretending otherwise.
The dugout3 May 2027
Ofori McCarthy: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bylis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Bylis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gjorgi Stoilov 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.
Squad3 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bylis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bylis can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout3 May 2027
Ousmane Kane has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Bylis 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.