Gustavo Escobar 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.
This is not rotation. Paulius Slavickas has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Pieta Hotspurs is pretending otherwise.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Jake Engerer 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 Pieta Hotspurs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pieta Hotspurs know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
42 graduates, from a department now rated 7 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
“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 The request is on a desk at Pieta Hotspurs, and it is not being withdrawn.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pieta Hotspurs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Words at Pieta Hotspurs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Mannino 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 dugout22 Apr 2030
Alex Fenech 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.
In brief
The dugoutJack Hooper knocks on the manager's door
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 23 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pieta Hotspurs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pieta Hotspurs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
This is not rotation. Juan Saliba has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Pieta Hotspurs is pretending otherwise.
Squad15 Apr 2030
Words at Pieta Hotspurs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jake Engerer 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Pieta Hotspurs can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Pieta Hotspurs, and it is not being withdrawn.
This is not rotation. Carlo Portelli has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Pieta Hotspurs is pretending otherwise.
Player ratings8 Apr 2030
Erick Rocha was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jake Engerer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pieta Hotspurs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Pieta Hotspurs.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Words at Pieta Hotspurs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Hooper 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 Brincat 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Pieta Hotspurs, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sliema Wanderers keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Add another name to the list: Swieqi United have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tristan Formosa. The answer from Pieta Hotspurs has not changed — yet.
Gustavo Escobar 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 Jack Hooper was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 Pieta Hotspurs, and it is not being withdrawn.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Pieta Hotspurs have had the benefit of it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pieta Hotspurs have done the hard part with Hibernians, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pieta Hotspurs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Words at Pieta Hotspurs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Hooper 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.
Jake Vassallo 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.
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.
“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 dugout24 Dec 2029
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 0‑2 Ivan Ellul left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gustavo Escobar. 2‑1 against Zurrieq, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Jack Hooper 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $4.3M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Ivan Ellul could afford to be generous.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
In brief
The dugoutCarlo Portelli dropped after a run of poor form
1‑4 to Zabbar St. Patrick, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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 Pieta Hotspurs, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pieta Hotspurs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Jack Hooper 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ivan Ellul after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Mannino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“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 Pieta Hotspurs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Gustavo Escobar 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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pieta Hotspurs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Erick Rocha signs something — a contract at Pieta Hotspurs or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jake Engerer has written the date down.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pieta Hotspurs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Words at Pieta Hotspurs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Hooper 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.
Mosta go through and Pieta Hotspurs go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
0‑3 against Vittoriosa Stars, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Everybody at Pieta Hotspurs saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 33 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jack Hooper 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 Pieta Hotspurs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ivan Ellul after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Pieta Hotspurs will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at Pieta Hotspurs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Mannino 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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Miguel D'Alessandro 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jake Engerer and Pieta Hotspurs agree another 2 years.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Roderick Pace 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alan Fenech is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ryan Gatt 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gilbert Chetcuti is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
He is 23 and he is exactly the player he was at the turn of the year. That is fine at twenty-eight and it is the beginning of a difficult conversation at his age.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Pieta Hotspurs will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Fgura United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Áquila was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Fgura United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fgura United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Fgura United, another week without a signature from Oresti Kasmollari.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fgura United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Juan Corbalan signs something — a contract at Fgura United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It is arithmetic now, and the arithmetic is done. A summer of hard questions starts early at Fgura United, and next season's fixture list reads very differently.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Antonio Micallef has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fgura United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fgura United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Tom Wiles has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Fgura United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Fgura United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Antonio Micallef has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fgura United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Owen Magro 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Abdulbasit Kolawole Shittu is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad5 Mar 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Roni Santos
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Roni Santos has come out of that comparison in the side, and Fgura United have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Áquila is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Fgura United, another week without a signature from Oresti Kasmollari.
In brief
The dugoutElías Berríos knocks on the manager's door
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fgura United can pretend not to have heard.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Fgura United has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Juan Corbalan 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.
11 combined actions and 6.85. 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.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Jack Hooper 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.
“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 Fgura United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Áquila was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Birzebbuga St. Peter's next, and one man in the Fgura United dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Fgura United has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aram Geghamyan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fgura United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Fgura United, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 23 arrived, 16 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
10 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Juan Corbalan 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Elías Berríos, and the manager let it.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
111% of the income goes out in wages at Fgura United
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.
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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 Fgura United, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Timilehin Caleb Akande will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fgura United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal with Birkirkara is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jack Hooper is living that version at Fgura United, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
4 academy players handed senior numbers at Fgura United
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.