“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Muranga Seal can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Muranga Seal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 May 2027
Elad Shahaf 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.
Jackson Imbiakha 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.
0‑3 to AFC Leopards, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Muranga Seal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Elad Shahaf 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.
Jackson Imbiakha 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.
13 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Muranga Seal can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Edwin Jumba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Muranga Seal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Elad Shahaf 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.
6 goals in one match, Michael Wairimu on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Muranga Seal and Mathare United.
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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 8 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Edwin Jumba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Muranga Seal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Muranga Seal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elad Shahaf 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Muranga Seal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Edwin Jumba has agreed terms with Kenya Police for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Muranga Seal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Elad Shahaf 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Muranga Seal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dennis Munyovi 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Abah Chinonso commits to Muranga Seal for another 3 years.
Squad1 Feb 2027
5 new faces, and Muranga Seal are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Muranga Seal may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Muranga Seal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elad Shahaf 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.
Lucas Maina 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Riva Adha has just signed for Muranga Seal, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
AFC Leopards go through and Muranga Seal go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“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 Muranga Seal, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Elad Shahaf 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.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Marked 5.24. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Elad Shahaf 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Muranga Seal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dennis Munyovi 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 level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Muranga Seal know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
12 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 4 of the 20 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
6 goals in one match, Joseph Waithira on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Muranga Seal and Ulinzi Stars.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Muranga Seal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It needed Joseph Waithira to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Ulinzi Stars, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.