Marked for Anton Pace
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
The knee: Máxuell Maia out for 90 days
90 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gzira United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match19 Jul 2027
Every point is an argument now for Gzira United
Position 11 and 16 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
Gabriel Mentz 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 Gzira United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Edoardo Colombo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
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Squad19 Jul 2027
At 25 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Gzira United asked and Birkirkara said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Gzira United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Mentz 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.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Anton Pace knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Anton Pace trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Jun 2027
Staša Bastić 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 Gzira United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Brooklyn Borg is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Edoardo Colombo 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
At 26 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Gabriel Mentz 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 dugout7 Jun 2027
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The dugout7 Jun 2027
Edoardo Colombo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gzira United 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.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Pace, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2027
A fracture rules Luís Riascos out for 42 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gzira United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market12 Apr 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Gzira United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Edoardo Colombo 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
16 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Mentz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Luís Riascos
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Luís Riascos out for 86 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gzira United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match1 Mar 2027
16 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market1 Mar 2027
Deacon Abela 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 Gzira United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Mar 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 Gzira United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Gzira United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Mentz 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.