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.
Asked to play a role that is not his, or taken off before the hour once too often — Gjorgi Stoilov has let it be known that he does not like the way Bylis are using him. Managers hear this long before the press does.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Erno Mustafa knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at NK Maribor pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Dinamo Bucharest defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. NK Maribor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
The shirt still fits. Kastriot Sala is back at Bylis, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
The shirt still fits. Florjan Përgjoni is back at Bylis, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Bylis have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
In brief
SquadErno Mustafa asks for a word with the manager
The terracesThe press cannot get enough of Dime Dimov
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. NK Maribor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Erno Mustafa is 18, and Bylis have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
A new face in his position, and Roberts Ozols suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Bylis have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
“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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bylis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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.
“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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bylis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bylis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bylis know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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.
“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.
A 2-1 win over Vllaznia Shkodër, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
$950.0K is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
“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.