The Zebbug Rangers Gazette
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Luciano Junior, 20, steals the show — 7.62
Marked 7.62 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match6 Nov 2027
The wait goes on for Zebbug Rangers
4 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Zebbug Rangers
Sam Schiffer 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.
Match6 Nov 2027
Luciano Junior’s goal not enough for Zebbug Rangers
Luciano Junior scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Mosta, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Bady 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.
Market8 Nov 2027
Thomas Micallef steps up from the Zebbug Rangers academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Thomas Micallef 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.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Ghiven Marques
“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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Luciano Junior is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Zebbug Rangers will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Boardroom8 Nov 2027
Wages swallow 96% of the Zebbug Rangers income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
In brief
- The dugout The manager’s verdict
- Squad Luciano Junior makes the team of the month
- Market The Gabriel story refuses to die