27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Medeama lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Yussif Mubarik 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.
Marked 8.08 — 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Medeama training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kabelo Nkgwesa 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Amos Essien after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Yussif Mubarik
70 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.08 for the rest of it.
Afriyie Acquah and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Medeama training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Victor Oduro 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.
A point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Something was said to Kingsley Braye and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
1‑4 to Ashanti Gold, 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Amos Essien after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Medeama training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paul Yeboah 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.
2 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
106 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Medeama lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Kelvin Nkrumah and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Amos Essien to a room that had heard them before.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Medeama training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paul Yeboah 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 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.
0‑3 against Hearts of Oak, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The deal that would have taken Joshua Agyemang to Aduana Stars has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Medeama with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked 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. Kaizer Chiefs have kept their man, and Medeama go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Medeama ran out of time with Liberty Professionals. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
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.
14 combined actions and 7.17. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
At 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fatawu Sulemana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kofi Asmah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Felix Kyei has written the date down.
45 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Walid Fuseini was one of the reasons people came, and $200.0K does not replace that by itself.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Prince Badu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Asante Kotoko the goodbyes have quietly begun.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Abraham Bukari 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. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Asante Kotoko 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.
The deal with Nasarawa United is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Yussif Mubarik 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Walid Fuseini from Asante Kotoko for $200.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Medeama asked and Aduana Stars said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.77, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
$200.0K settles it between the clubs for Walid Fuseini
Asante Kotoko have accepted the money. What Medeama do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Samuel Tetteh. 2‑1 against WAFA, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Kwadwo Schlupp 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fatawu Sulemana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.