Marked for Manuel Pace
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Jan 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dominic Attard
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Swieqi United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market29 Jan 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at Swieqi United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2035
Everything agreed with Floriana, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad29 Jan 2035
Tomás Prost 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 Swieqi United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Jan 2035
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Swieqi United can tell you which week it ends in.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2035
Door shut on Heitor
Swieqi United 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.
Boardroom29 Jan 2035
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The dugout29 Jan 2035
Tomás Prost gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings29 Jan 2035
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Dec 2034
Manuel Pace hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Swieqi United can pretend not to have heard.
Match2 Dec 2034
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Swieqi United did not have in the autumn.
Squad4 Dec 2034
Tomás Prost 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.
Match2 Dec 2034
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Brandon Powell. 2‑0 against Gudja United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Boardroom4 Dec 2034
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Player ratings4 Dec 2034
Marked 8.48 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings4 Dec 2034
Jacinto Andrada was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad4 Dec 2034
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Market4 Dec 2034
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Swieqi United, another week without a signature from Brandon Powell.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Oct 2034
“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 Swieqi United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Tomás Prost 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.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Words at Swieqi United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Medel 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.
Squad16 Oct 2034
5 new faces, and Swieqi United are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout16 Oct 2034
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.
Squad16 Oct 2034
The formation has left Ivan Mintoff behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Swieqi United will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout16 Oct 2034
Jacinto Andrada asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout16 Oct 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kurt Xerri, and the manager let it.
Market16 Oct 2034
The George Lloyd talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Swieqi United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom18 Sep 2034
Swieqi United interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Match16 Sep 2034
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Market18 Sep 2034
Manuel Pace hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Swieqi United can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom18 Sep 2034
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad18 Sep 2034
Jackson 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 Swieqi United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom18 Sep 2034
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.
Squad18 Sep 2034
The decline has begun for Arnold Vula
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Swieqi United is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Match16 Sep 2034
A 2‑1 win over Sirens, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings18 Sep 2034
Shaisen Attard was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jun 2034
Isaac Psaila hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Swieqi United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Jackson 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.
Boardroom12 Jun 2034
206% of the income goes out in wages at Swieqi United
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.
Boardroom12 Jun 2034
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.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Words at Swieqi United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexander Krüger 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.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2034
A loan move for Mpho Moletsane is in the works
Swieqi United have made the call to Marsaxlokk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2034
Floriana 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.
Market12 Jun 2034
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout12 Jun 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Manuel Pace, and the manager let it.