Marked for Giorgos Efstathiadis
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Oct 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market28 Oct 2030
Only the photograph left for Pietro Avena
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pietro Avena will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Iliria Fushë-Krujë the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Enea Topi 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.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Paolo Kampula 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.
Squad28 Oct 2030
41 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
No hiding place for Enea Topi
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Enea Topi, and the manager let it.
Boardroom28 Oct 2030
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Match26 Oct 2030
It needed Joel Sula to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Lushnja, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Iliria Fushë-Krujë dressing room was either.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Sep 2030
Rilke Thomsen hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Iliria Fushë-Krujë can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
David Lazaro, 19, steals the show — 7.78
Marked 7.78 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market30 Sep 2030
Only the photograph left for Pietro Avena
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pietro Avena will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Iliria Fushë-Krujë the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Enea Topi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Nobody could get near Enea Topi
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match28 Sep 2030
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Redon Danaj 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 terraces30 Sep 2030
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. David Lazaro 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jun 2029
“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 Jadran Dekani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market25 Jun 2029
Josip Mijić has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Jadran Dekani they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom25 Jun 2029
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Josip Mijić has agreed terms with Triglav Kranj for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Sergiu Coman 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.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Jadran Dekani asked and Olimpija Ljubljana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Jadran Dekani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josip Mijić 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.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
A loan move for Uroš Likar is in the works
Jadran Dekani have made the call to Bravo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Mura have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Olimpija Ljubljana have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.