Marked for Bismark Anim
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Aug 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and WAFA waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aduana Stars is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market28 Aug 2028
“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.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Aduana Stars have done the hard part with Ashanti Gold, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad28 Aug 2028
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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Samuel Kuffour 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohammed Bamba and Aduana Stars agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
Medeama 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.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
A loan move for Harrison Waris is in the works
Aduana Stars have made the call to Hasaacas. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
The manager makes an example of Boa-At Regain
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Jun 2028
Bismark Anim hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aduana Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Aduana Stars and Berekum Chelsea have settled on $940.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Squad19 Jun 2028
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.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Aduana Stars asked and Ashanti Gold said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Yussif Mubarik 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.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
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.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
When it matters, Hadi Haruna plays
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.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Charles Gyamfi Kamara, and the manager let it.
Market19 Jun 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Benjamin Tsivanyo may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Apr 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Emmanuel Marfo
29 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Samuel Kuffour and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces17 Apr 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Remember Adomako Boateng 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Yussif Mubarik 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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Ninety minutes of Blankson Anoff at his very best
Marked 8.08. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Aduana Stars.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stephen Badu, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nana Boakye on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Aduana Stars told Bismark Anim something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Apr 2028
43 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.
Match29 Mar 2028
0‑1 against Great Olympics, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market3 Apr 2028
Maxwell Arthur has one foot out of the door
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.
Match1 Apr 2028
8 matches without a win, and then this, against Bechem United. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Blankson Anoff and Aduana Stars agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Efa Enabulele and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Apr 2028
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.
Match1 Apr 2028
A 2‑0 win over Bechem United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Samuel Kuffour, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Feb 2028
“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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market28 Feb 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aduana Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match26 Feb 2028
4 matches without a win for Aduana Stars
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Aduana Stars are no longer polite ones.
Match26 Feb 2028
4 matches without a goal for Aduana Stars
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad28 Feb 2028
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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Samuel Kuffour 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 dugout28 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Isaac Mintah, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nana Boakye was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Aduana Stars dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Feb 2028
Efa Enabulele 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.
Match19 Feb 2028
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Aduana Stars can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad21 Feb 2028
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.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Samuel Kuffour, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nana Boakye was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Aduana Stars dressing room was either.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Bismark Anim dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
No place in the plan for Stephen Badu
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Match19 Feb 2028
Point won or two lost for Aduana Stars?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Ashanti Gold? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
Berekum Chelsea wanted more than $1.1M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad14 Feb 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gregory Sekyere commits to Aduana Stars for another 3 years.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Stephen Badu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match12 Feb 2028
BA All Stars left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yussif Mubarik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Bismark Anim
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market14 Feb 2028
Bechem United are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Aduana Stars will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad14 Feb 2028
No place for Derick Ogbu in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Aduana Stars are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Dec 2027
Stephen Badu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Dec 2027
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.
Match25 Dec 2027
0‑1 to New Edubiase United, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad27 Dec 2027
The medical room confirms 19 days on the sidelines for Ernest Mwankurinah, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Bismark Anim
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout27 Dec 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 Nana Boakye to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
Samuel Kuffour 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 Samuel Kuffour trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead27 Dec 2027
A test against the best for Aduana Stars
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Berekum Chelsea.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Dec 2027
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.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match11 Dec 2027
Bechem United left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
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 Nana Boakye left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Aduana Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxwell Arthur 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 dugout13 Dec 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Bismark Anim
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 dugout13 Dec 2027
Benjamin Tsivanyo has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Benjamin Tsivanyo is the weekend's best young player
At 19 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Nov 2027
Efa Enabulele 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Samuel Kuffour 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 dugout15 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bismark Anim, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Aduana Stars are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gregory Sekyere trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
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 Charles Gyamfi Kamara is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Nov 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aduana Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Stephen Badu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Samuel Kuffour, and the manager let it.
Match30 Oct 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
The game went through Bismark Anim — 6.29
Marked 6.29 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The dugout1 Nov 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 Nana Boakye to a room that had heard them before.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Aduana Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxwell Arthur 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.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Aduana Stars lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Remember Adomako Boateng's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Oct 2027
Stephen Badu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
Stephen Badu gets it from the manager
“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.
Match2 Oct 2027
WAFA made Aduana Stars work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad4 Oct 2027
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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ibrahim Iddrisu and Aduana Stars agree another 1 years.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Market4 Oct 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Aduana Stars, another week without a signature from Efa Enabulele.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Marked 7.74 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Aduana Stars had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Nana Boakye kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Efa Enabulele 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Benjamin Asiedu Kwesi has just signed for Aduana Stars, and for once the answer mattered.
The terraces27 Sep 2027
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.
Squad27 Sep 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.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Bismark Anim
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Nana Boakye after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
Bismark Anim dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Aduana Stars may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad20 Sep 2027
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.
Match18 Sep 2027
0‑1 to Hasaacas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Aduana Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abubakar Adams 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 dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Mezack Afriyie
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Bismark Anim
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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“I want to play”: David Oppong speaks
“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.
Looking ahead20 Sep 2027
Hearts of Oak next, and one man in the Aduana Stars dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.