Naxxar Lions and Floriana have settled on $670.0K. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naxxar Lions this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Melita have kept their man, and Naxxar Lions go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Arsen Chatoyan
Yeangel Montero 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Naxxar Lions training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Campos 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 is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vinicius Baiano signs something — a contract at Naxxar Lions or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutJames Vella asks for a word with the manager
SquadRosiel is training like a man with a point to make
Supporters organise against the Naxxar Lions board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Naxxar Lions
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
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 Naxxar Lions training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sekala Guehi 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 Naxxar Lions can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Naxxar Lions can pretend not to have heard.
“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; Naxxar Lions are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naxxar Lions this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Taylor Anderson has just signed for Naxxar Lions, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yeangel Montero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Naxxar Lions have made the call to Hamrun Spartans. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
He is 19, and nobody at Naxxar Lions signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.