The Floriana Chronicle
Market21 Jun 2027
Terms done: Paul Mbong is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hamrun Spartans waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Floriana is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market21 Jun 2027
Dunstan Vella turns Balzan down
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market21 Jun 2027
Gabriel Justino puts it in writing
“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 The request is on a desk at Floriana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market21 Jun 2027
Floriana say no — this time
The offer from Santa Lucia for Zachary Scerri was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Floriana
Kenan Dervišagić 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Luís Soares 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 dugout21 Jun 2027
Kenan Dervišagić 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 Floriana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Werner Oosthuizen
“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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Kekuta Manneh 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 Kekuta Manneh is on it.
In brief
- Squad Werner Oosthuizen wants out of the dugout
- Squad Victor is starting to belong
- The dugout The manager plants his flag on Zachary Scerri