The words a physio says slowly. 39 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The offer from Hearts of Oak for Morrison Anokye was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Charles Agyemang will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Berekum Chelsea the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 46 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Berekum Chelsea they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Seth Paintsil 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.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Berekum Chelsea lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Position 16 and 13 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Berekum Chelsea is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Berekum Chelsea lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Berekum Chelsea can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Berekum Chelsea they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Berekum Chelsea training over how hard people work
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Berekum Chelsea lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Berekum Chelsea, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Berekum Chelsea is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Seth Paintsil 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Bechem United will make the call about Mário Junior this week. Berekum Chelsea have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
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.
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Berekum Chelsea lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mário Junior will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Berekum Chelsea the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Seth Paintsil 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.
Ahmed Khaled damages knee ligaments — 107 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 107 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Berekum Chelsea can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eric Ofori-Antwi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Berekum Chelsea the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Berna 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Berekum Chelsea told Torric Jebrin something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Ahmed Khaled damages knee ligaments — 114 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 114 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Seth Paintsil 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Bechem United will make the call about Mário Junior this week. Berekum Chelsea have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
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.
122 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Berekum Chelsea lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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 Berekum Chelsea, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of Mário Junior has come up in conversations Berekum Chelsea were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Berekum Chelsea training over how hard people work
138 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Berekum Chelsea lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Berekum Chelsea is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Morales 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.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Berekum Chelsea lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Berekum Chelsea, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Berekum Chelsea they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Morales 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 trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Berekum Chelsea has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Berekum Chelsea lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Berekum Chelsea is running low.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
the manager has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Berekum Chelsea can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Berekum Chelsea, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Berekum Chelsea is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Berna 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.
7 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.
29 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Berekum Chelsea has to find a result from somewhere.
The words a physio says slowly. 76 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Position 16 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Berekum Chelsea can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Berna 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 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Frédérick Ntsama 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.
27 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 92 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Berekum Chelsea can pretend not to have heard.
The deal that would have taken Mário Junior to Bechem United has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Berekum Chelsea with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Shohruhxon Qahhorov has just signed for Berekum Chelsea, and for once the answer mattered.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Berekum Chelsea can pretend not to have heard.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Berekum Chelsea can tell you which week it ends in.
Kwesi Sorotu Badori 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 had been thinking. Matías Morales 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Berekum Chelsea can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Bechem United for Mário Junior was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Morales 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Berekum Chelsea, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Berekum Chelsea can pretend not to have heard.
Seth Paintsil 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.
It needed Mohamed El Negely to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Aduana Stars, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“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.
14 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Berekum Chelsea have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Seth Paintsil 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.
Marked 5.51. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Isa Aji 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Berekum Chelsea can tell you which week it ends in.
6 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.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Berekum Chelsea, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Berekum Chelsea have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Edwin Asamoah is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Berekum Chelsea lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Berekum Chelsea can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.81 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
5 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kwesi Sorotu Badori is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Liberty Professionals held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Berekum Chelsea answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Berekum Chelsea lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Berekum Chelsea, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mohamed El Negely has just signed for Berekum Chelsea, and for once the answer mattered.
4 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Edwin Asamoah is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Berekum Chelsea lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces6 Sep 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 9 of the 29 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Augustine Agyapong is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Seth Paintsil 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Mário Junior has improved at 24, which nobody expected
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. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Berekum Chelsea can tell you which week it ends in.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jonathan Nuhu 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.
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Berekum Chelsea lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Berekum Chelsea can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Berekum Chelsea lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 24 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 45 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Berekum Chelsea, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nasser El Khayati 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.
In brief
SquadMatías Morales falls out with a teammate over standards
Supporters turn on the $520.0K sale of Johnson Amuzu
He is going to Hearts of Oak, the club has $520.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Hearts of Oak paid $520.0K and Berekum Chelsea took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
In brief
SquadWords at Berekum Chelsea training over how hard people work
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Berekum Chelsea can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Morales 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Berekum Chelsea can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Berekum Chelsea have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadMatías Morales falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matías Morales and Berekum Chelsea agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Berekum Chelsea are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Morales 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 23 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.
Marked 8.51 — 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.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 10 of the 33 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A brace, and Johnson Amuzu takes the afternoon — 8.05
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Johnson Amuzu provided it, and the 8.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Seth Paintsil 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Berekum Chelsea have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Morales 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 23 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.
Marked 8.51 — 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.
“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 Berekum Chelsea, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Berekum Chelsea have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nasser El Khayati 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Berekum Chelsea, another week without a signature from Mário Junior.
Marked 5.61. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.