Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Afful will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Egnatia Rrogozhinë the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Guillem Jaime 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.
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 Olawale Olajide has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Anio Poçi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” OFK Beograd had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Egnatia Rrogozhinë people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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; Egnatia Rrogozhinë are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Fernando Medeiros 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 had been thinking. Guillem Jaime 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 easiest signature of my career.” Ledio Beqja and Egnatia Rrogozhinë agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about 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 Olawale Olajide has written the date down.
Position 5, 19 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
In brief
The dugoutKlevi Qefalija asks for a word with the manager
1 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Egnatia Rrogozhinë this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arbenit Xhemajli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Albano Aleksi 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 in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Egnatia Rrogozhinë. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Fernando Medeiros 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillem Jaime 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.
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 Olawale Olajide has written the date down.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Egnatia Rrogozhinë has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Egnatia Rrogozhinë this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillem Jaime 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.
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.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Egnatia Rrogozhinë has been clear about where Klevi Qefalija stands, which is more than many ever get.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Soumaïla Bakayoko signs something — a contract at Egnatia Rrogozhinë or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Guillem Jaime 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 had been thinking. Arbenit Xhemajli 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Egnatia Rrogozhinë can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Guillem Jaime 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.
Fernando Medeiros and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Guillem Jaime 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.
At 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Egnatia Rrogozhinë will try not to make too much of it.
Guillem Jaime 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.
Minute 87, against Bylis, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Naser Mando chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Egnatia Rrogozhinë lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Levan Tandilashvili is 23, 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 Egnatia Rrogozhinë this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andrea Thanasi and Egnatia Rrogozhinë agree another 3 years.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Naser Mando on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Egnatia Rrogozhinë lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fernando Medeiros 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guillem Jaime was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Egnatia Rrogozhinë will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Vllaznia Shkodër next, and one man in the Egnatia Rrogozhinë dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Anio Poçi