Marked for Joseph Onyango
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Jan 2027
AS Korofina come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Bandari did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market25 Jan 2027
Erick Balecho has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bandari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Amza Moubarack 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Andrew Juma pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The dugout25 Jan 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 dugout25 Jan 2027
Said Tsuma has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Bandari 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
The name of Hassan Abdallah keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Bandari say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Bandari will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
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 William Wadri has written the date down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bandari may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad18 Jan 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 Bandari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Bandari
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hassan Abdallah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Swaleh Pamba has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Bandari 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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
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.
Market18 Jan 2027
David Sakwa linked with a move away
The name of David Sakwa keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Bandari say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
20 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Bandari
Amza Moubarack and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Erickson Mulu gets picked when it counts
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 Erickson Mulu is on it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Darius Msagha
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Bandari
Amza Moubarack 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Erickson Mulu commits to Bandari for another 3 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Hassan Abdallah 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.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
$234.4K on the table at Bandari
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Geoffrey Ojunga is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout7 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.