“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 The request is on a desk at AF Elbasani, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Glenis Belloj 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Amri Kallaku 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.
21 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AF Elbasani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AF Elbasani can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amri Kallaku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Max Metcalfe 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AF Elbasani can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Something was said to Mustapha Koma and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at AF Elbasani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xhordan Lajthia 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.
Dinamo City next, and one man in the AF Elbasani dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at AF Elbasani. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Insa Boye signs something — a contract at AF Elbasani or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; AF Elbasani are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AF Elbasani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AF Elbasani, another week without a signature from Redon Gega.
22 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.
The dugout5 Oct 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 0‑2 Amer Shala left the room before anybody could ask which.
Partizani Tirana go through and AF Elbasani go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mustapha Koma did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Insa Boye 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AF Elbasani 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 Xhordan Lajthia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Glenis Belloj 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.
0‑1 to Tirana, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout14 Sep 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Amer Shala to a room that had heard them before.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Nobody at AF Elbasani is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Insa Boye signs something — a contract at AF Elbasani or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at AF Elbasani. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 28 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Glenis Belloj 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bylis have kept their man, and AF Elbasani go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrahima Diallo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
22 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The deal with Partizani Tirana is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Insa Boye 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Partizani Tirana have kept their man, and AF Elbasani go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alerio Qirko is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at AF Elbasani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahima Diallo 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Amer Shala after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Insa Boye 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.
AF Elbasani asked and Flamurtari said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at AF Elbasani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amri Kallaku 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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Partizani Tirana have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at AF Elbasani would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alessio Allkollari is living that version at AF Elbasani, and it tends to show in the first month.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. AF Elbasani will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Vllaznia Shkodër is saying, and nobody at AF Elbasani is enjoying the guessing.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Insa Boye and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Amri Kallaku 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AF Elbasani, another week without a signature from Glenis Belloj.
AF Elbasani have made the call to Partizani Tirana. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AF Elbasani have done the hard part with Vllaznia Shkodër, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The shirt still fits. Redon Gega is back at AF Elbasani, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Insa Boye 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. AF Elbasani will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AF Elbasani can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at AF Elbasani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Insa Boye 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.
AF Elbasani have made the call to Vllaznia Shkodër. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
AF Elbasani have made the call to Partizani Tirana. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
AF Elbasani have made the call to Dinamo City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AF Elbasani, and both men came out saying it was fine.