It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamrun Spartans this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giancarlo Simigliani is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
In brief
SquadWords at Hamrun Spartans training over how hard people work
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Atanas Naydenov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hamrun Spartans the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Atanas Naydenov has agreed terms with Hibernians for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamrun Spartans this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matthew Guillaumier 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Danilo Bulevardi 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 crowd waited for a goal that never came. Hibernians defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Blessing Eleke signs something — a contract at Hamrun Spartans or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 9 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“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 The request is on a desk at Hamrun Spartans, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jefferson Ramos is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamrun Spartans this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matthew Guillaumier 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Hamrun Spartans has been clear about where Matthias Debono stands, which is more than many ever get.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hamrun Spartans lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jefferson Ramos has just signed for Hamrun Spartans, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamrun Spartans this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hamrun Spartans and Birkirkara in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.67, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Michele Carboni was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.40. 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.
8.29. 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.