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.
Marked 8.47 — 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.
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.
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.
The shirt still fits. Oliver Busuttil is back at Birkirkara, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Steve Caruana is a Birkirkara player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Birkirkara can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Zach Muscat 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Birkirkara has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“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 The request is on a desk at Birkirkara, and it is not being withdrawn.
Zach Muscat 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.
Zach Muscat 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Neil Micallef is a Birkirkara player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The enquiry everybody at Birkirkara was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Birkirkara, another week without a signature from Neil Micallef.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hibernians this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Matteo Piazza again, and this time the name on the line is Naxxar Lions. Hibernians are listening politely and promising nothing.
Marked 8.63 — 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.
Marked 8.09 — 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Hibernians pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
He is 20, and nobody at Hibernians signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Hibernians will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Kevin Halabaku 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.
Kevin Halabaku 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hibernians this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kevin Halabaku 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hibernians this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hibernians this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kevin Halabaku 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hibernians this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hibernians know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Hibernians that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hibernians this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Giovanni Mollo is 20, and Hibernians have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Hibernians has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Position 2, 38 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“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 Hibernians, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Naxxar Lions for Matteo Piazza was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hibernians this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Hibernians, and it is not being withdrawn.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Hibernians have had the benefit of it.
Kevin Halabaku 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.