The Valletta Chronicle
The terraces24 Jun 2030
The mood at Valletta 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.
Squad24 Jun 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Brandon Paiber
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valletta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match24 Jun 2030
Every point is an argument now for Valletta
Position 11 and 18 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.
Market24 Jun 2030
Thomas Vettoretto asks to leave Valletta
“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.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Milan Lalić 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.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Max Edwards-Stryjewski 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.
In brief
- Squad Emmanuel Mbende falls out with a teammate over standards
- Market Valletta and David Buttigieg are talking past each other