Marked for Jake Caprice
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Mar 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Birkirkara will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market20 Mar 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Birkirkara is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Zach Muscat 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 Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Birkirkara
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rafa Santos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad20 Mar 2028
38 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Rashed Al-Tumi's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
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 Alessandro Coppola is on it.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“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.
Market20 Mar 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Birkirkara know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Mar 2028
“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.
Market6 Mar 2028
Emin Spahić has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Birkirkara they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad6 Mar 2028
JP Iseppe 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jake Caprice and Birkirkara agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Lindokuhle Mthimkulu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Mar 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Harvey Higgins
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Harvey Higgins has come out of that comparison in the side, and Birkirkara have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Feb 2028
Only the photograph left for Louis Pahama
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Louis Pahama will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Birkirkara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad28 Feb 2028
The medical room confirms 29 days on the sidelines for Jere Vrcić, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Birkirkara
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rafa Santos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Luis Mario Córdova and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Ruben Garcia has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Birkirkara is pretending otherwise.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
Jake Caprice 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.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
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 Fatjon Bunjaku is on it.
Market28 Feb 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Jere Vrcić’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
Juninho 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Birkirkara may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market21 Feb 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Birkirkara is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Zach Muscat 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 Birkirkara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rafa Santos 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
66 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Kemar Reid 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.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Rashed Al-Tumi is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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 Alessandro Coppola is on it.
Market21 Feb 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Birkirkara know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Zebbug Rangers waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Birkirkara is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Birkirkara have done the hard part with Tarxien Rainbows, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Birkirkara asked and Valletta said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Jan 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Birkirkara will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rafa Santos 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.
Match8 Jan 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“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.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Giovanni Calleja after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Lindokuhle Mthimkulu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match6 Feb 2027
12 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Walsall were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market8 Feb 2027
Tom Pett puts it in writing
“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 Oldham Athletic, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Oldham Athletic may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Calum Kavanagh and Oldham Athletic agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Layton Love and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Oldham Athletic can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Oldham Athletic asked and Aston Villa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Taoufik Ijrouten
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Oldham Athletic lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Mike Fondop 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Manny Monthé 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Match24 Oct 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Newport County defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Calum Kavanagh knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Calum Kavanagh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.