The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hibernians people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hibernians is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Kevin Halabaku 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 Matteo Cardinali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Marsa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hibernians is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cebo Mchunu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hibernians the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hibernians this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
Nobody at Hibernians 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Hibernians training over how hard people work
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hibernians is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Cardinali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Hunter Olson 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.
Something was said to Thon and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
The dugoutKevin Halabaku has become a man the manager trusts
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Hibernians have had the benefit of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hibernians they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Kevin Halabaku and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Hibernians training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mouad El Fanis 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.
21 appearances and 1 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matheus Ângelo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hibernians the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Igor Szostek has just signed for Hibernians, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Hibernians has been clear about where Thon stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Hibernians 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.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Matteo Cardinali: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Hunter Olson will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Hibernians escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matheus Ângelo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hibernians the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Hibernians training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Cardinali 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hibernians they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Kevin Halabaku 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.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hibernians know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jordan Hodkin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Cleiton Robozão decided otherwise. Floriana had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Two goals and a mark of 8.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hibernians can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pieta Hotspurs waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hibernians is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Hibernians have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Hibernians close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 1 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Miullen is on it.
Something was said to Silas Alfred and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hibernians, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Hibernians would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hibernians know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Hibernians could ask drops and the wages Léo Caeté can ask rise.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nqobani Biyela has, at Hibernians, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Julian Scicluna to a room that had heard them before.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nqobani Biyela commits to Hibernians for another 3 years.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Ali Diakité 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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Hibernians scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sliema Wanderers have kept their man, and Hibernians go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Hibernians.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Dexter Xuereb 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Julian Scicluna, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hibernians this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Matheus Ângelo is living that version at Hibernians, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Warri Wolves have kept their man, and Hibernians go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Hibernians are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mouad El Fanis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Valletta in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.