Marked for Frederick Tabone
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Nobody could get near Léo Reis
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Nov 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 Swieqi United know it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Danilo Borges 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Cruz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
151% 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
39 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Loan watch30 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Marsa to sit and watch. I want to come back to Swieqi United and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 14 matches say the rest.
Match28 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Antonio Debono chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match18 Nov 2026
Out, 0‑3 to Marsaxlokk, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Swieqi United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Herick wants to go home
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Swieqi United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Gustavo Dalmina 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Cruz Aguilar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
He is 23 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Nobody could get near Léo Reis
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match31 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Swieqi United did not have in the autumn.
Market2 Nov 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 Swieqi United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Swieqi United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Cruz Aguilar 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 151% of everything Swieqi United earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match31 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Emmanuel Asante. 1‑0 against Zurrieq, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 8.14 — 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.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Swieqi United, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Juan Cruz Aguilar
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Juan Cruz Aguilar has come out of that comparison in the side, and Swieqi United have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.