Marked for Aleksandro Skënderaj
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Aug 2027
“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.
Market16 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Luftëtari waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bylis is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market16 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bylis is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market16 Aug 2027
The deal that would have taken Saheed Owolabi to Vllaznia Shkodër has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Bylis with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Bylis
Gjorgi Stoilov 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 Aug 2027
Words at Bylis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Vieira 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Aug 2027
“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.
Market2 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bylis people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market2 Aug 2027
Bylis say no — this time
The offer from Skonto for Ionuţ Gurău was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bylis have done the hard part with Partizani Tirana, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Bylis
Dime Dimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Bylis
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Vieira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market2 Aug 2027
Add another name to the list: Kastrioti Krujë have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Saheed Owolabi. The answer from Bylis has not changed — yet.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“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 Bylis know it.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
Gjorgi Stoilov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gjorgi Stoilov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Jul 2027
“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 Bylis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Vllaznia Shkodër waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bylis is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market19 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aleksandro Skënderaj will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bylis the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Bylis
Dime Dimov 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Denis Shera 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Bylis are still strangers to each other
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.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aleksandro Skënderaj, and the manager let it.
The terraces19 Jul 2027
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Bylis would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Jul 2027
25 days out for Gjorgi Stoilov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bylis will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market5 Jul 2027
“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 Bylis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and AF Elbasani waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bylis is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market5 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Bylis
Gjorgi Stoilov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Bylis
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rabiu Abdullahi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Partizani Tirana 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Ahmed Sanogo is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ahmed Sanogo has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Bylis sign 6 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Jun 2027
A fracture rules Gjorgi Stoilov out for 32 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bylis will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market28 Jun 2027
“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 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bylis people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bylis have done the hard part with Partizani Tirana, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad28 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bylis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Denis Shera 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
A loan move for Daniel Adjessa is in the works
Bylis have made the call to Egnatia Rrogozhinë. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Denis Shera gets it from the manager
“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.
Market28 Jun 2027
AF Elbasani are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Bylis will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.