The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Skënderbeu Korçë is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 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.
Esin Hakaj 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idris Nuradeen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Alban Kallaku after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Two goals and a mark of 8.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 3, 15 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vasilis Tounis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Skënderbeu Korçë the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Flavio Mecja 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 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Baba Hamadu Musa in the middle of it, and Vllaznia Shkodër unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Esin Hakaj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Flavio Mecja 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Skënderbeu Korçë, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Dinamo City next, and one man in the Skënderbeu Korçë dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A side in position 5 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Skënderbeu Korçë is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Flavio Mecja was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Matteo Milan 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.
Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Paulo Estrela has taken the hint, and Skënderbeu Korçë are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Alban Kallaku after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Skënderbeu Korçë can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Flavio Mecja 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.
Mikael Rakipaj 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Bjorni Kastrati after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Skënderbeu Korçë people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Esin Hakaj 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.
The phone has started ringing about Isaac Afolabi again, and this time the name on the line is AF Elbasani. Skënderbeu Korçë are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Edwin Ayiba 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.
1 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Nobody at Skënderbeu Korçë 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.
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 Skënderbeu Korçë would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
23 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
In brief
The dugoutIlir Dabjani knocks on the manager's door
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Skënderbeu Korçë can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Skënderbeu Korçë they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Add another name to the list: AF Elbasani have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lucho Vásquez. The answer from Skënderbeu Korçë has not changed — yet.
Rrok Toma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Flavio Mecja 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.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sorrento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 dugout10 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Francesco Fusco'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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sorrento told Antonio Potenza something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.