Stephen Badu 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Kuffour 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 Gregory Sekyere is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aduana Stars, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aduana Stars know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aduana Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A season average of 7.12 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Aduana Stars know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Daouda Sidibé 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Aduana Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Kuffour 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daouda Sidibé trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Aduana Stars will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aduana Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aduana Stars 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 Aduana Stars 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aduana Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 22 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.
Marked 8.04 — 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Aduana Stars will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Kuffour was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Patrick Bukari and Aduana Stars agree another 3 years.
Great Olympics will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Aduana Stars were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 9.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 Aduana Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aduana Stars may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Aduana Stars close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 1 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Aduana Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Awuni 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 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Samuel Kuffour 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stephen Amankona provided it, and the 8.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Kuffour was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Daniel Awuni did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Stephen Amankona. 3‑1 against Heart of Lions, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Daniel Awuni 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 Aduana Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
23 goals and a season average of 7.75 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Daouda Sidibé takes the afternoon — 9.58
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daouda Sidibé provided it, and the 9.58 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Minute 95, against Berekum Chelsea, 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.
Half the programme played, position 7, 22 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
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.
Stephen Badu 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Daniel Awuni 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.
“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 dugout16 Nov 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 0‑1 Bernard Atiemo left the room before anybody could ask which.
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aduana Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 9.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdul-Aziz Nurudeen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aduana Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Great Olympics scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Emmanuel Abban 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 words a physio says slowly. 94 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑3 to Hearts of Oak, 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.
Stephen Badu 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alex Boakye, and the manager let it.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Aduana Stars dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Bernard Atiemo to a room that had heard them before.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Aduana Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Kuffour 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 team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The words a physio says slowly. 109 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Aduana Stars close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 8 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Raymond Agyemang is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bayelsa United is saying, and nobody at Aduana Stars is enjoying the guessing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aduana Stars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Aduana Stars will try again when the window opens; Liberty Professionals may not be selling by then.
In brief
SquadDaouda Sidibé falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 117 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.
Liberty Professionals have accepted the money. What Aduana Stars do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Remo Stars keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Daouda Sidibé 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Kuffour was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 131 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Heart of Lions had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Berekum Chelsea for Abubakar Adams 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Aduana Stars have done the hard part with Bayelsa United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Aduana Stars asked and Fauve Azur Elite said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Berekum Chelsea have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Silas Kyeremeh. The answer from Aduana Stars has not changed — yet.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Aduana Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Awuni 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.
Aduana Stars have made the call to Remo Stars. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Stephen Badu 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nana Afful is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Andre Asamoah is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bernard Paintsil 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Manuel Mbollo is in the works