5 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edwin Asamoah 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Berekum Chelsea told Fataho Nerie something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
Bernard Somuah, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismail Muhd 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Level with 95 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Berekum Chelsea had all but put away. New Edubiase United will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
It needed Bernard Somuah to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against New Edubiase United, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ismail Muhd is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 9 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Berekum Chelsea until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The deal with BA All Stars 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Marvin Owusu reports back to Berekum Chelsea with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Elvis Manu 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.
Berekum Chelsea have gone to Liberty Professionals 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Hearts of Oak; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Eric Ofori-Antwi was one of the reasons people came, and $95.0K does not replace that by itself.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kwesi Sorotu Badori is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Shayibu Abubakari has, at Berekum Chelsea, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Augustine Agyapong 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.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Berekum Chelsea asked and Hearts of Oak said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
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 dugoutSamuel Tenedu knocks on the manager’s door
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Liberty Professionals waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Berekum Chelsea is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The clubs have shaken hands with Aduana Stars; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Samuel Tenedu 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 upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Berekum Chelsea is running low.
The clubs have shaken hands with Wa All Stars; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Morrison Anokye and Berekum Chelsea agree another 4 years.
Berekum Chelsea 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Johnson Amuzu 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.
Ashanti Gold 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Berekum Chelsea have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Berekum Chelsea have done the hard part with Wa All Stars, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Elvis Manu 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Samuel Tenedu 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 at Berekum Chelsea 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 Berekum Chelsea, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Berekum Chelsea, another week without a signature from Vincent Klu Adjeu.
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Daniel Baba has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Add another name to the list: Gabala have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Johnson Amuzu. The answer from Berekum Chelsea has not changed — yet.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kwesi Sorotu Badori and Berekum Chelsea agree another 5 years.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Johnson Amuzu 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Johnson Amuzu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Berekum Chelsea the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Berekum Chelsea is running low.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Berekum Chelsea can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Johnson Amuzu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samuel Tenedu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Berekum Chelsea have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Berekum Chelsea can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Ashanti Gold for Yaw Dankwah 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.
Everything agreed with Hearts of Oak, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Elvis Manu 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 had been thinking. Samuel Tenedu 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.
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.
Berekum Chelsea have made the call to Djoliba. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Berekum Chelsea is running low.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Tenedu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Berekum Chelsea 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.
Augustine Agyapong 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Johnson Amuzu 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.
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 Seidu Abubakar is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohammed Seidu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Berekum Chelsea can pretend not to have heard.
Elvis Manu 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 had been thinking. Samuel Tenedu 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.
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 Seidu Abubakar is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Position 13 on 27 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Augustine Agyapong 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.
6 goals in one match, Sule John on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Berekum Chelsea and Aduana Stars.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eric Ofori-Antwi, and the manager let it.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Samuel Tenedu 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 board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. BA All Stars will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Augustine Agyapong 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 had been thinking. Johnson Amuzu 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ismail Muhd 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Seidu Abubakar provided it, and the 8.75 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Elvis Manu and Berekum Chelsea agree another 2 years.
6 goals in one match, Seidu Abubakar on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Berekum Chelsea and WAFA.
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Samuel Tenedu 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.
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Berekum Chelsea has to find a result from somewhere.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Berekum Chelsea this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Heart of Lions left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Samuel Tenedu 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Daniel Baba after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Samuel Tenedu will call it something else in private.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Berekum Chelsea can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have shaken hands with Wa All Stars; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Berekum Chelsea have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Berekum Chelsea until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Elvis Manu 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.
Berekum Chelsea asked and Barau said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Berekum Chelsea can pretend not to have heard.
Elvis Manu 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Samuel Tenedu 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Daniel Baba after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Ashanti Gold go through and Berekum Chelsea go home, 3‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Rahman Abdul will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Berekum Chelsea escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The bid was some way short and Berekum Chelsea did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Bernard Somuah, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Abubakar Abubakar has, at Berekum Chelsea, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Elvis Manu 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.
Elvis Manu 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Morrison Anokye 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.
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.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Nobody at Berekum Chelsea is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.