Marked for Edoardo Colombo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gzira United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market9 Nov 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gzira United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Mentz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Luís Riascos 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 Gzira United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Nov 2026
Valletta left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Anton Bajada to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Brooklyn Borg
“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 dugout9 Nov 2026
Bryan Arguez 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 Bryan Arguez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
The chances came and went for André
5 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gzira United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match24 Oct 2026
Johan Bonilla wins it after the whistle should have gone
94 minutes played. Johan Bonilla found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Zabbar St. Patrick went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Idris Ajiya at 19 — 7.65
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Idris Ajiya did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
The game went through Luís Riascos — 6.83
Marked 6.83 on 16 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Mentz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
André was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Johan Bonilla was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. 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
Squad19 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.01, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match17 Oct 2026
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Mentz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match17 Oct 2026
A 2‑1 win over Floriana, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Luís Riascos 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Edoardo Colombo
“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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.22, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Gzira United are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
The form table has caught Andrew Borg
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Market
Máxuell Maia linked with a move away
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gzira United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Luís Riascos 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 Gzira United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Staša Bastić 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Aydhan wants to go home
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gzira United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Antiago De Flavia’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Gzira United needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with André’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Sep 2026
The small margins put Gzira United out
Out, 0‑2 to Gudja United, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market5 Oct 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gzira United can pretend not to have heard.
Match3 Oct 2026
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Mentz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Idris Ajiya 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Hibernians left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Oct 2026
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 38, 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Staša Bastić, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Partizani Tirana have kept their man, and Gzira United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Gzira United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Mentz 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Idris Ajiya 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Marsaxlokk left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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 ratings14 Sep 2026
Idris Ajiya beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Anton Bajada after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Gzira United
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 Gzira United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
4 academy players handed senior numbers at Gzira United
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Gzira United asked and Floriana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Luís Riascos 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Charlton Galea has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market31 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Karl Portelli has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market31 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nicholas Micallef has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Birkirkara, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
In brief
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Squad
A row about effort at Gzira United
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The dugout
No hiding place for Máxuell Maia
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Johan Bonilla and Gzira United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Staša Bastić for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Gzira United will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Gzira United asked and Swindon Town said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Gabriel Mentz 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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 Gzira United know it.