Marked for Andriy Vella
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Aug 2027
Gabriel Costa damages knee ligaments — 85 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 85 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Andriy Vella out for 75 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Naxxar Lions will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market23 Aug 2027
Théo Kruger 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 Naxxar Lions can pretend not to have heard.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Aug 2027
Gabriel Costa damages knee ligaments — 92 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 92 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Naxxar Lions
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Naxxar Lions is running low.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Andriy Vella breaks a bone — 83 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market16 Aug 2027
Nebi Qokthi 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 Naxxar Lions can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Agil Medvedev is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad16 Aug 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 Naxxar Lions this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gabriel Costa
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Naxxar Lions lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Andriy Vella out for 91 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Naxxar Lions will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market9 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Yeangel Montero 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“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.
Market9 Aug 2027
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Deisler Agius leaves Naxxar Lions the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Jun 2027
Théo Kruger 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 Naxxar Lions can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Yeangel Montero 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Andriy Vella is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.