Marked for Raphael Wober
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match21 Aug 2028
Position 2 and 39 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market21 Aug 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hamrun Spartans is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Diyar Zengin is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamrun Spartans this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Ipalibo Jack has improved at 30, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Ognjen Bjeličić 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hamrun Spartans is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Raphael Wober is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Danilo Bulevardi 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Hamrun Spartans training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ognjen Bjeličić 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Jul 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hamrun Spartans can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamrun Spartans this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Raphael Wober is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Hamrun Spartans training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danilo Bulevardi 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Henry Bonello and Hamrun Spartans agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 May 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matthias Debono will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hamrun Spartans the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hamrun Spartans this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Raphael Wober is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 39. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match18 Dec 2027
13 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hamrun Spartans may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Oshobe Oladele 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Danilo Bulevardi 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.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
The afternoon belonged to Jonny
A mark of 7.37, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 Jun 2027
Every point is an argument now for Admira Wacker
Position 8 and 17 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” David Junuzovic and Admira Wacker agree another 5 years.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Kevin Wober 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Admira Wacker can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Kevin Wober in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Admira Wacker this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Admira Wacker training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Harry Clifton 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.