Marked for Robert Lartey
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Feb 2027
The bid was some way short and WAFA did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Heart of Lions; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Match30 Jan 2027
5 matches without a win for WAFA
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around WAFA are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
WAFA close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Lulama Nxumalo arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lulama Nxumalo has, at WAFA, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A falling-out at WAFA
David Kudus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at WAFA training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abeiku Asante 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lulama Nxumalo and WAFA agree another 3 years.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Jan 2027
Abraham Kudus damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at WAFA, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad4 Jan 2027
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. WAFA had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at WAFA
Abdul Partey 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
0‑1 to Hearts of Oak, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match2 Jan 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
In brief
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Match
The half-term report on WAFA
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Robert Lartey
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Boardroom
$2.5M on the table at WAFA
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
Abdul Partey in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Robert Lartey and WAFA agree another 3 years.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at WAFA
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Kudus was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market23 Nov 2026
He is 20, and nobody at WAFA signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ernest Mohammed was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the WAFA dressing room was either.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Andre Addo
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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Point won or two lost for WAFA?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Bechem United? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.