Marked for Levian Ochieng
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Sofapaka
David Nshimirimana and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Sofapaka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clifton Miheso 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 90% of everything Sofapaka earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“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 dugout28 Dec 2026
Eugene Wethuli knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Eugene Wethuli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Meshack Omukhulu has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sofapaka 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
Kandrin Naidoo 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Sofapaka
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David King'atua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sofapaka may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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. Sofapaka will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad16 Nov 2026
David Nshimirimana 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Clifton Miheso 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
No place for Kandrin Naidoo in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Sofapaka are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market16 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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
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 Sammy Kiplangat is on it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Edwin Lutta knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sofapaka, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
112 days out for Victor Ochieng after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sofapaka will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sofapaka may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sofapaka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
A promise honoured at Sofapaka
Something was said to Ernest Mohammed and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Felix Mulyungi 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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.