Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oussama Benhaoua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom22 Oct 2035
Nobody left the St. Andrews dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Andrews this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
The dugoutSamuel Ellul knocks on the manager’s door
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for St. Andrews is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oussama Benhaoua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
263% of the income goes out in wages at St. Andrews
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.74, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
Player ratingsAndreas Klein beats them one at a time
“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 St. Andrews, and it is not being withdrawn.
Sasha Cachia 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.
Squad1 Oct 2035
Words at St. Andrews training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oussama Benhaoua 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Balzan were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Oussama Benhaoua 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 7.79 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, St. Andrews had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout24 Sep 2035
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Ellul was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The mood at St. Andrews 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.
“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 St. Andrews, and it is not being withdrawn.
8 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oussama Benhaoua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Interim Coach clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicholas Hawkins will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around St. Andrews the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Hibernians keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
In brief
Boardroom6 academy players handed senior numbers at St. Andrews
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Andrews this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andreas Klein trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 St. Andrews, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around St. Andrews they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deal with Floriana is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Oussama Benhaoua 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.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Words at St. Andrews training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hafiz Mohammed Akadom 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Stefan Buttigieg has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Patrick Brincat is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Andrews this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at St. Andrews, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation St. Andrews are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nolan Bresson has his answer from St. Andrews; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Andrews can pretend not to have heard.
Position 14 on 20 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Andrews this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Andreas Klein has his answer from St. Andrews; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The goal that put Mtarfa ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when St. Andrews equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The mood at St. Andrews 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.
Boardroom2 Apr 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at St. Andrews
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Joseph Kakara 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Nicholas Hawkins is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at St. Andrews, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Andrews can pretend not to have heard.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Richard Pearson, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Mar 2035
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Tarxien Rainbows next, and one man in the St. Andrews dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Two goals and a mark of 9.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at St. Andrews is running low.
Joseph Kakara 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.
A 3‑1 win over Zebbug Rangers, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Andreas Klein has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what St. Andrews can pretend not to have heard.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kieran Wilson, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Feb 2035
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Andrews this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and St. Andrews will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at St. Andrews pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
In brief
Looking aheadSt. Andrews take on the side everybody is chasing
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Joseph Kakara 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.
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.