“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 The request is on a desk at Tarxien Rainbows, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Tarxien Rainbows has to find a result from somewhere.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwasi Donsu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Oltis Shabani is 18, and Tarxien Rainbows 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.
Anthony Lokosa had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Hamrun Spartans were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“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 The request is on a desk at Tarxien Rainbows, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marked 7.97. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Marko Musulin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Patrick Schmidt was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.18. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwasi Donsu 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.
Bismarck and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marko Musulin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Kwasi Donsu 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.
Minute 90, against Naxxar Lions, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Bismarck 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 Tarxien Rainbows know it.
9 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleksander Łubik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Patrick Schmidt is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tarxien Rainbows know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gustavo Dalmina trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Patrick Schmidt provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Tarxien Rainbows know it.
Marked 7.15. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Bismarck 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 club 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 it has been tried.
“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 Tarxien Rainbows, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
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. 12 actions, 6.53, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
In brief
SquadWords at Tarxien Rainbows training over how hard people work
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tarxien Rainbows can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 5 of the 25 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Tarxien Rainbows has to find a result from somewhere.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Tarxien Rainbows can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tarxien Rainbows this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Kwasi Donsu 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tarxien Rainbows this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.49, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Bruno Tesouro 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.
4.34. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Kian Vella is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Tarxien Rainbows asked and Birzebbuga St. Peter's said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tarxien Rainbows 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 Kwasi Donsu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ryan Chetcuti after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marko Musulin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Floriana defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Tarxien Rainbows close the window on a squad of their own making
10 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Miguel Spiteri reports back to Tarxien Rainbows with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Marko Musulin 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.
Tarxien Rainbows asked and Floriana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwasi Donsu 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gabriel Turnes and Tarxien Rainbows agree another 3 years.
0‑3 to Hibernians, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tarxien Rainbows this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ian Tabone has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Malcolm Gauci has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Andrew Bajada has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
“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 Tarxien Rainbows, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mosta have kept their man, and Tarxien Rainbows 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 Kwasi Donsu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Tarxien Rainbows will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Tarxien Rainbows, another week without a signature from Cleiton Thiesen.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hibernians in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Tarxien Rainbows would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
In brief
Looking aheadLooking ahead: the trip to Hibernians
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Cleiton Thiesen is living that version at Tarxien Rainbows, and it tends to show in the first month.
Bismarck 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mladost Lucani have kept their man, and Tarxien Rainbows go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Kwasi Donsu 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.
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.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Tarxien Rainbows were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tarxien Rainbows this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Tarxien Rainbows asked and Reading said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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; Tarxien Rainbows are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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. Tarxien Rainbows will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Patrick Schmidt and Tarxien Rainbows agree another 4 years.
“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; Tarxien Rainbows are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Add another name to the list: Santa Lucia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kyle Gatt. The answer from Tarxien Rainbows has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Partizani Tirana have kept their man, and Tarxien Rainbows go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadKwasi Donsu falls out with a teammate over standards