Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Khama Jali will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inter Allies the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somila Ntsundwana 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Inter Allies has been clear about where Tony stands, which is more than many ever get.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inter Allies will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inter Allies 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inter Allies will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somila Ntsundwana 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 Inter Allies 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Inter Allies, another week without a signature from Abdulrazaq Shuaibu.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and Hasaacas spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Inter Allies training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Hasnaoui 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dele Israel. 1‑0 against Hasaacas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Asante Kotoko go through and Inter Allies go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 8 of the 29 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
A mark of 7.86 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Inter Allies will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
An order from above at Inter Allies: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Inter Allies training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulrazaq Shuaibu 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bokamoso Taukobong is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mohamed Ali Saleh Ziad is living that version at Inter Allies, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inter Allies this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Victor Peter 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohamed Ali Saleh Ziad 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.
Marked 8.31 — 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.
Mohamed Ali Saleh Ziad is 20, and Inter Allies 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somila Ntsundwana 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Khama Jali is living that version at Inter Allies, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Inter Allies training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paulinho 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Seth Green 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.