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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rashed Al-Tumi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Jere Vrcić’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Birkirkara.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Jere Vrcić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Giovanni Busuttil, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“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 The request is on a desk at Birkirkara, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rashed Al-Tumi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 7.27, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Birkirkara people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Zach Muscat 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Frankie Devereaux is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Nobody at Birkirkara will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined 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 Birkirkara, and it is not being withdrawn.
Zach Muscat 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rashed Al-Tumi 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jan Busuttil trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Franklin Sasere signs something — a contract at Birkirkara or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Zach Muscat 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rashed Al-Tumi 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.
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 Shaka Zulu is on it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Macula was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Birkirkara are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Nobody at Birkirkara will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Frankie Devereaux arrives at Birkirkara with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rashed Al-Tumi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Birkirkara, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Birkirkara. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Birkirkara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Franklin Sasere 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rashed Al-Tumi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Jere Vrcić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Giovanni Busuttil after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Zach Muscat 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rashed Al-Tumi 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.93, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Comfort Ngubo, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
8 new faces, and Birkirkara 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Giovanni Busuttil left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Bayanda Zulu is living that version at Birkirkara, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
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.
Position 4, 17 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Gzira United next, and one man in the Birkirkara dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutLouis Pahama knocks on the manager’s door
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 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.
“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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Giovanni Busuttil was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Birkirkara dressing room was either.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Mosta in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Zach Muscat 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.
Birkirkara 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Birkirkara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Coppola 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Birkirkara know which stage they are at.
The dugout7 Sep 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.” Giovanni Busuttil chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Birkirkara than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.