Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ardit Hoxhaj 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.
Klinshak Longbak 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 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 Laçi know it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Laçi, another week without a signature from Osagie Onisodumeya.
19 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Shisaked Halili is 16, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Erjon Babe after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“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 Laçi know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ardit Hoxhaj 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Laçi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
The dugout19 Oct 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.” Erjon Babe chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
Player ratingsAntonio Delaj beats them one at a time
The dugoutBlerim Trashi dropped after a run of poor form
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Laçi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Bruno Lulaj 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.
At 36, 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Laçi has been clear about where Blerim Trashi stands, which is more than many ever get.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Kukësi in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Laçi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Bruno Lulaj 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 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Samuel Ajine. 2‑0 against Luftëtari, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Samuel Ajine was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Erjon Babe could afford to be generous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Laçi 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 Ardit Hoxhaj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Luftëtari in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The match ball belongs to Ardit Hoxhaj, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ardit Hoxhaj 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.
Marked 9.11 — 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.
20 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Laçi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Laçi asked and Monte Azul said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Klinshak Longbak 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 else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Erjon Babe after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
SquadWords at Laçi training over how hard people work
“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 Laçi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 24 signed and 29 gone
That is the business done at Laçi until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Goiânia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ardit Hoxhaj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Klinshak Longbak 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Laçi, another week without a signature from Osagie Onisodumeya.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ardit Hoxhaj’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Laçi needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A brace, and Bedri Greca takes the afternoon — 8.88
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bedri Greca provided it, and the 8.88 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Laçi have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ardit Hoxhaj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Egnatia Rrogozhinë have kept their man, and Laçi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 19 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Laçi can pretend not to have heard.
Laçi asked and América de Natal 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
19 new faces, and Laçi 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Laçi know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Bedri Greca’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Laçi needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Laçi has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Kauno Zalgiris keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Bruno Lulaj 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ardit Hoxhaj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Laçi will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Laçi, another week without a signature from Gëzim Krasniqi.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Antonio Delaj is living that version at Laçi, and it tends to show in the first month.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Laçi have done the hard part with Kauno Zalgiris, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
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.
The shirt still fits. Adolf Selmani is back at Laçi, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
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.
Laçi have made the call to Kauno Zalgiris. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arlind Kurti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.