The Mtarfa Chronicle
Squad28 Aug 2028
Edy damages knee ligaments — 134 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 134 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match26 Aug 2028
The wait goes on for Mtarfa
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match26 Aug 2028
Nowhere to hide for Mtarfa
0‑4 against Naxxar Lions, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market28 Aug 2028
Terms done: Marcos Cortez is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Zurrieq waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Mtarfa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
Sandro Junio frozen out at Mtarfa
This is not rotation. Sandro Junio has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Mtarfa is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
No thanks: Lamine Coulibaly rejects the move
Mtarfa had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Hamrun Spartans, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words exchanged at Mtarfa
Conor Grant 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.
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
5 academy graduates step up at Mtarfa
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Cauê 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.
In brief
- Market Mtarfa promote Tristan Debattista from within
- Market Mtarfa promote Mark Attard from within
- Market Mtarfa promote Clive Mangion from within