Marked for Eddy Huseynov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings9 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Sep 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tirana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Anton Krešić 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.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Donat Mehmeti has improved at 24, 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. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Player ratings9 Sep 2030
Marked 7.82 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Tirana had the best player on the pitch.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Jens Aslaksrud dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Market9 Sep 2030
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Eddy Huseynov has his answer from Tirana; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Match7 Sep 2030
Point won or two lost for Tirana?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Bylis? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Market9 Sep 2030
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom3 Jun 2030
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Visar Daci has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom3 Jun 2030
The Tirana board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad3 Jun 2030
A fracture rules Eddy Huseynov out for 20 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tirana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match3 Jun 2030
Tirana refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 21 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad3 Jun 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tirana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Jun 2030
The phone has started ringing about Donat Mehmeti again, and this time the name on the line is Partizani Tirana. Tirana are listening politely and promising nothing.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Tirana training over how hard people work
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Squad
Michy Fellaini stays put
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Boardroom
The Tirana dressing room answers
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 May 2030
A fracture rules Eddy Huseynov out for 27 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tirana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad27 May 2030
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Tirana will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad27 May 2030
Tempers go at Tirana
Freddy Álvarez 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
Squad20 May 2030
A fracture rules Eddy Huseynov out for 34 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tirana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad20 May 2030
Tempers go at Tirana
Visar Bekaj 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 May 2030
Anton Krešić 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 May 2030
A fracture rules Eddy Huseynov out for 41 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tirana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad13 May 2030
Visar Bekaj 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 Tirana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 May 2030
Luciano Vera 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom6 May 2030
Visar Daci has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Tirana can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad6 May 2030
A fracture rules Eddy Huseynov out for 48 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tirana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom6 May 2030
The Tirana board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Match6 May 2030
Tirana refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 21 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad6 May 2030
Tempers go at Tirana
Visar Bekaj 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.
Squad6 May 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Rijad Kobiljar commits to Tirana for another 2 years.
In brief
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Squad
Anton Krešić falls out with a teammate over standards
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Boardroom
Tirana were not finished after all
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Apr 2030
A fracture rules Eddy Huseynov out for 55 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tirana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Visar Bekaj 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 Tirana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Words at Tirana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Krešić 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
Crisis
Match23 Jan 2030
Tirana out of the cup
Partizani Tirana ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Visar Bekaj 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 Tirana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Luciano Vera 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Oct 2029
A fracture rules Anton Krešić out for 64 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tirana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match3 Oct 2029
0‑3. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Boardroom8 Oct 2029
Visar Daci has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Tirana can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The terraces8 Oct 2029
The mood at Tirana has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom8 Oct 2029
Crisis meeting at Tirana
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tirana may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jens Aslaksrud and Tirana agree another 3 years.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Visar Bekaj 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 Tirana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match6 Oct 2029
Flamurtari left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
Crisis meeting at Tirana
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Visar Bekaj 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 Tirana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Luciano Vera 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Oluwabori Falaye has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Tirana 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.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
$414.0K taken back off the Tirana table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
In brief
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Squad
The manager's exit leaves Eddy Huseynov exposed
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Boardroom
Tirana were not finished after all