The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Medeama people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Everything agreed with Ashanti Gold, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Medeama this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$36.0K on the table at BA All Stars. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Medeama asked and Asante Kotoko said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ebenezer Nkrumah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Medeama the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Medeama have gone to BA All Stars with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Medeama offered $36.0K; BA All Stars said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Berekum Chelsea will make the call about Chidiebere Nwobodo this week. Medeama have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The name of Adams Abdul Jabal has come up in conversations Medeama were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Medeama have made the call to Hearts of Oak. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutJoseph George knocks on the manager's door
Everything agreed with Bechem United, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Medeama this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liberty Professionals have kept their man, and Medeama go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Asante Kotoko have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
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 Ernest Ohemeng is on it.
In brief
The dugoutJoseph George asks for a word with the manager
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Medeama lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Aduana Stars waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Medeama is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Medeama, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Felix Kyei again, and this time the name on the line is Aduana Stars. Medeama are listening politely and promising nothing.
Medeama have gone to Wa All Stars with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Ernest Ohemeng 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ashanti Gold have kept their man, and Medeama go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at Medeama 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Medeama, and both men came out saying it was fine.