Marked for Filip Artykiewicz
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Floriana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Troiano 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Felippe Santana 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
55 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad16 Apr 2029
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Floriana know it.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
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.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
Alen Kurtalić knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Floriana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
Gean Junior 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.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Loan watch16 Apr 2029
28 appearances at Gudja United and the goals have stopped going in. Floriana lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Apr 2029
Augusto Cáseres 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Anton Sindt and Floriana agree another 3 years.
Squad9 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Floriana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market9 Apr 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Floriana, another week without a signature from Felippe Santana.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
Dunstan Vella has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Floriana will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
“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.
Market9 Apr 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Carlo Zammit Lonardelli signs something — a contract at Floriana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
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 Daniel Troiano has written the date down.
Market9 Apr 2029
The clock does Felippe Santana’s negotiating for him
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Floriana could ask drops and the wages Felippe Santana can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Jan 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Floriana can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Jan 2029
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Floriana had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad1 Jan 2029
“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; Floriana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Floriana
Felippe Santana 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.
Match30 Dec 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Floriana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Augusto Cáseres 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 dugout1 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Felippe Santana
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Matthew Spiteri after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mustapha Jah commits to Floriana for another 4 years.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mateus Magalhães has just signed for Floriana, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad9 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Floriana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Paul Mbong was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Floriana
Felippe Santana 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 terraces9 Oct 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Kaique Henrique has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match7 Oct 2028
A 1‑0 win over Fgura United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Tom Georgiou
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Nobody on the pitch touched Paul Mbong
7.91, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Floriana had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Boardroom9 Oct 2028
Wages eat 92% of everything Floriana earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.