The Marsaxlokk Gazette
Market13 Aug 2035
Peter Hughes has said yes to Valletta
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Marsaxlokk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market13 Aug 2035
Didier Nkomo Ossomba asks to leave Marsaxlokk
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market13 Aug 2035
PWD Bamenda come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Marsaxlokk did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad13 Aug 2035
A falling-out at Marsaxlokk
Abdul Mumini Salifu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Aug 2035
A row about effort at Marsaxlokk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bogdan Ratiu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad13 Aug 2035
Didier Nkomo Ossomba wants to go home
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Marsaxlokk know it.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2035
A loan move for Charlie Forsyth is in the works
Marsaxlokk 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 dugout13 Aug 2035
Destiny Okonkwo knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Marsaxlokk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout13 Aug 2035
Ludwig Granqvist has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Marsaxlokk 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
- Market The clock does Christoph Grillitsch’s negotiating for him
- The dugout The manager plants his flag on Bogdan Ratiu
- Squad Alan Ellul is out on the grass again