Thomas Bugeja

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22 Feb 2032
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Marked for Thomas Bugeja

260 Edition

The Valletta Chronicle

21 Jul 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout21 Jul 2031

Clive Mallia keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Valletta may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market21 Jul 2031

Valletta turn down Marsaxlokk for Alan Fenech

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad21 Jul 2031

Emmanuel Mbende in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valletta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad21 Jul 2031

Bruno Gomes 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 dugout21 Jul 2031

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The dugout21 Jul 2031

Manuel Morello has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Valletta 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.

In brief

Back issues
227 Edition

The Valletta Chronicle

2 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad2 Dec 2030

A fracture rules Thomas Bugeja out for 19 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valletta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Player ratings2 Dec 2030

Shaft Brewer was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 27. 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.

Player ratings2 Dec 2030

Malcolm Brincat, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.76

A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Squad2 Dec 2030

Bruno Gomes signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bruno Gomes and Valletta agree another 2 years.

Squad2 Dec 2030

Words exchanged at Valletta

Emmanuel Mbende 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.

Squad2 Dec 2030

Words at Valletta training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Gomes 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.

Match30 Nov 2030

Valletta come up short against Floriana

Floriana left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout2 Dec 2030

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The dugout2 Dec 2030

No hiding place for Jean Schembri

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jean Schembri, and the manager let it.

In brief

226 Edition

The Valletta Chronicle

25 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad25 Nov 2030

26 days out for Thomas Bugeja after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Valletta will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Match25 Nov 2030

Valletta are in real trouble now

Position 10, 13 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Player ratings25 Nov 2030

Vintage Roko Prša — 8.13

At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.13, and nobody on the pitch better.

Squad25 Nov 2030

Tempers go at Valletta

Emmanuel Mbende 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.

Squad25 Nov 2030

Words at Valletta training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Gomes 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.

Player ratings25 Nov 2030

Shaft Brewer runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match23 Nov 2030

Valletta and Hibernians take a point apiece

It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

The dugout25 Nov 2030

Manuel Morello gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Manuel Morello is on it.

The dugout25 Nov 2030

The view from the dugout

“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Nicholas Farrugia chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.

In brief