The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Balzan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Mosta keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hibernians have kept their man, and Balzan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Dean Forbes 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Balzan can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Balzan have made the call to Tarxien Rainbows. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutDean Forbes knocks on the manager's door
“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 The request is on a desk at Balzan, and it is not being withdrawn.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Dean Forbes 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.
Luis Gabriel 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Chiemezie Gabriel has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Position 2, 35 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
28 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Balzan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Chiemezie Gabriel. 2‑1 against Pieta Hotspurs, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dean Forbes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
James Scicluna 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.
Marked 7.89. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
Dean Forbes is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Balzan now.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Dean Forbes 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Melita in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Balzan would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bjarki Arnaldarson signs something — a contract at Balzan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Balzan will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Chiemezie Gabriel provided it, and the 8.81 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Herick did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dean Forbes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Balzan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces25 Oct 2027
Balzan supporters have found a favourite in Herick
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Herick has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Balzan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Balzan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oluwatobiloba Dimeji Awosanya. 1‑0 against St. Andrews, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 7.79 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Balzan had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Noel Attard, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Balzan will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Chiemezie Gabriel. 2‑1 against Marsa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dean Forbes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Balzan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Balzan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Herick 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 first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Tarxien Rainbows; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Balzan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Marsa next, and one man in the Balzan dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Balzan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Balzan had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Marsaxlokk, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Balzan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Balzan asked and Hamrun Spartans said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dean Forbes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Balzan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dean Forbes 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.
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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Marsaxlokk keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Balzan asked and Tarxien Rainbows said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Balzan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Herick 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.
Position 3, 53 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Mosta keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hamrun Spartans have kept their man, and Balzan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Balzan are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Balzan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Herick 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
A loan enquiry to Sliema Wanderers: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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.
In brief
The dugoutDean Forbes knocks on the manager's door
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hibernians have kept their man, and Balzan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Dean Forbes 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Luis Gabriel is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Alex Cini is 35, with 324 appearances behind him, and Balzan will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Balzan can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Mosta keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$5.0K on the table at Marsaxlokk. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dean Forbes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
James Scicluna 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Balzan can pretend not to have heard.
Balzan had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sliema Wanderers, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Balzan asked and Sliema Wanderers said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Herick was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sliema Wanderers have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Balzan will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting James Scicluna's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Balzan had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Marsaxlokk, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
A season average of 7.13 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Balzan know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Balzan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dean Forbes 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.
A loan enquiry to Sliema Wanderers: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
The dugoutDean Forbes knocks on the manager's door
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Santa Lucia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Balzan is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Position 3, 53 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Balzan and Marsaxlokk have settled on $3.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Luis Gabriel 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Balzan can pretend not to have heard.
Wagner Vidal 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Balzan know it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Dean Forbes 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.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Balzan were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Balzan now.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Balzan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dean Forbes 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.
James Scicluna and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting James Scicluna's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Balzan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Balzan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dean Forbes 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 language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Jakub Murko
Not a month, not a run of form — a whole season of being the best 21-year-old anybody in this division could put on a pitch. This is the honour that gets mentioned for the rest of his career.
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 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Balzan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Balzan has been clear about where Dylan Ciappara stands, which is more than many ever get.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Balzan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yousuf Toure will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Balzan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Balzan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dean Forbes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Chiemezie Gabriel has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Balzan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.12, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Balzan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dean Forbes 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Balzan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Balzan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
48 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Balzan and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Balzan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Jakub Murko, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.04
A mark of 8.04 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Balzan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Herick was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Chiemezie Gabriel provided it, and the 8.69 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Dean Forbes, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.78
A mark of 7.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Balzan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Balzan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Herick 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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Melita were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Balzan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
5 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Balzan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Wagner Vidal and Balzan agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Balzan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dean Forbes 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Balzan can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Balzan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sliema Wanderers have kept their man, and Balzan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Balzan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dean Forbes 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.
James Scicluna and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
James Scicluna was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It needed James Scicluna to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Swieqi United, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Balzan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Chiemezie Gabriel provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Balzan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Herick did not need any: 8.17, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Balzan can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gzira United have kept their man, and Balzan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Dean Forbes 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 103 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Chiemezie Gabriel did not need any: 7.95, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Balzan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
A season average of 7.02 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Balzan know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Match2 Jan 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Balzan. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Dean Forbes 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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Words at Balzan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dean Forbes 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Noel Attard after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Balzan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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.
9 combined actions and 6.62. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Lennon Thompson is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Chiemezie Gabriel is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Balzan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Wagner Vidal 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.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Balzan know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dean Forbes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ibrahim Halliru trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Two goals and a mark of 8.78 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Luis Gabriel 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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.14, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Noel Attard, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Balzan would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Balzan know it.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Balzan can tell you which week it ends in.
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Dean Forbes 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Marked 6.92 on 11 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Noel Attard left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Balzan know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dean Forbes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Luis Gabriel 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kevin Mangion has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gabriel Fenech has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Balzan would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Balzan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dean Forbes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 dugout21 Sep 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Noel Attard to a room that had heard them before.
Vittoriosa Stars next, and one man in the Balzan dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Herick was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Angelo Grech has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Balzan are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Nobody at Balzan 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Balzan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Balzan close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Balzan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dean Forbes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.