Mustapha Jah damages knee ligaments — 113 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 113 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Floriana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 The request is on a desk at Floriana, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 Wonderson Yakubu is on it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Floriana has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
141 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Floriana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Isaac Dudding, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Feb 2036
Words at Floriana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julian Fortomaris 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Floriana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Floriana 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.
148 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Floriana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Floriana will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Floriana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
14 clean sheets from 20 appearances at Mtarfa. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Words at Floriana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julian Fortomaris 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.
21 appearances at Birzebbuga St. Peter's and the goals have stopped going in. Floriana lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Floriana have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Floriana can pretend not to have heard.
Floriana and Tarxien Rainbows have settled on $12.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stefan Spiteri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Floriana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julian Fortomaris was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Floriana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Floriana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julian Fortomaris was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Vanderpuye will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Floriana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Floriana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Fahd Moufi 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mustapha Jah. 2‑0 against Hibernians, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Floriana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julian Fortomaris was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Floriana, another week without a signature from Aaron Aquilina.
The dugout5 Nov 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 0‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ryan Barbara is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jodi Jones is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Louis Guyot is living that version at Floriana, and it tends to show in the first month.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Vanderpuye will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Floriana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Louis Guyot and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Liam Jackson 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Floriana is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Floriana has been clear about where Stefan Spiteri stands, which is more than many ever get.
1 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Floriana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Floriana is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Floriana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jack Scott is living that version at Floriana, and it tends to show in the first month.
Fahd Moufi 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.
Floriana asked and Hamrun Spartans said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Liam Jackson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Floriana 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.
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Floriana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Floriana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Floriana have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Floriana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Floriana asked and Hamrun Spartans said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Liam Jackson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Floriana have made the call to Hamrun Spartans. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Floriana 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Floriana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Floriana will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Nobody at Floriana 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Floriana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Floriana is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Floriana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Floriana 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.
36 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ben Gaerty has written the date down.
5 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Floriana could get for him.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Questions about Ryan Barbara on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Markel Méndez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Floriana, another week without a signature from Fahd Moufi.
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 Wonderson Yakubu is on it.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
A decision that decides nothing on the pitch and everything in the room. The manager has said, without saying it, whose voice he wants heard when his own is not there.
Fahd Moufi 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.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Liam Jackson 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Kleven De Oliveira is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad5 Mar 2035
A place in the month's best eleven for Ryan Barbara
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ryan Barbara has come out of that comparison in the side, and Floriana have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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 Wonderson Yakubu is on it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Matteo Salamon has his answer from Floriana; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ryan Debono has written the date down.
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Position 5 on 36 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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Birkirkara spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Floriana people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Owen Ferreira had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Floriana 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kyle Defraine has just signed for Floriana, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Liam Jackson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Floriana have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2035
$820.0K settles it between the clubs for Gustavo Lira
Hamrun Spartans have accepted the money. What Floriana do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
Floriana close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Words at Floriana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liam Jackson 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ryan Barbara is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tyler Bell did not need any: 7.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fahd Moufi 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.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.71 beside his name.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
12 combined actions and 6.63. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Angelo Silvestri has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Half the programme played, position 5, 16 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ryan Barbara
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Floriana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Igor Wiśniewski has just signed for Floriana, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad30 Oct 2034
Liam Jackson 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.
Tiago Madeira 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.
It needed Daniel Vanderpuye to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Marsaxlokk, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutJon Delgado dropped after a run of poor form
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Floriana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Gzira United; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Floriana is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Tiago Madeira 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.
“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.
The dugout23 Oct 2034
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
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 Ryan Barbara is on it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Floriana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Fahd Moufi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Jon Delgado has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
In brief
Player ratingsThe game went through Jon Delgado — 7.16
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Floriana have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Owen Ferreira had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Floriana ran out of time with Hamrun Spartans. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Floriana, another week without a signature from Jodi Jones.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Floriana people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Floriana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The clubs have shaken hands with Hamrun Spartans; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gabriel Buttigieg has just signed for Floriana, and for once the answer mattered.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 6 arrived, 14 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Tiago Madeira has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
10 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Marsa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Floriana is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything agreed with Hamrun Spartans, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Floriana have made the call to Hamrun Spartans. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Angelo Silvestri has his answer from Floriana; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutTiago Madeira knocks on the manager’s door
The dugoutNathan Walker has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mgarr United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Floriana is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Floriana and Hamrun Spartans have settled on $690.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Vanderpuye will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Floriana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Everything agreed with Hamrun Spartans, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Harry Haines reports back to Floriana with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Floriana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Matteo Salamon has come up in conversations Floriana were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Floriana people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Everything agreed with Hamrun Spartans, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Floriana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Hamrun Spartans have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Vittoriosa Stars waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Floriana is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Floriana can pretend not to have heard.
The deal that would have taken Aaron Aquilina to Vittoriosa Stars has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Floriana with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Floriana have done the hard part with Hamrun Spartans, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Floriana have made the call to Hamrun Spartans. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Floriana people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Vanderpuye will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Floriana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Floriana asked and Hamrun Spartans said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The phone has started ringing about Tyler Bell again, and this time the name on the line is Vittoriosa Stars. Floriana are listening politely and promising nothing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Floriana people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have shaken hands with Hamrun Spartans; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Floriana 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.
Floriana asked and Hamrun Spartans said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Tiago Madeira 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 name of Harry Haines has come up in conversations Floriana were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Floriana have made the call to Hamrun Spartans. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Floriana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Floriana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Floriana 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.