Marked for Samual Nuako
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Jun 2031
Only the photograph left for Godfred Boakye
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Godfred Boakye will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Medeama the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market30 Jun 2031
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Medeama have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout30 Jun 2031
Ernest Boateng: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Medeama have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Medeama have done the hard part with Maccabi Tel Aviv, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Rivers United is saying, and nobody at Medeama is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aduana Stars have kept their man, and Medeama go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Jun 2031
A falling-out at Medeama
Abdullahi Usman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Timothy Zechariah 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 dugout30 Jun 2031
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Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 May 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Medeama is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 May 2031
Words exchanged at Medeama
Abdullahi Usman 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 dugout12 May 2031
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 Bernard Somuah is on it.
Market12 May 2031
Isaac Mintah is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Medeama has been clear about where Isaac Mintah stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout12 May 2031
The manager makes an example of Samual Nuako
“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.
Market12 May 2031
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Medeama could get for him.
Market12 May 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Felix Kyei’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Match12 May 2031
Medeama have something to play for
Position 4 on 59 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The dugout12 May 2031
Paul Yeboah has been promised minutes
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 Paul Yeboah has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 May 2031
Only the photograph left for Paul Yeboah
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Paul Yeboah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Medeama the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout5 May 2031
Samual Nuako: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Medeama have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 May 2031
A falling-out at Medeama
Abdullahi Usman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 May 2031
Words at Medeama training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timothy Zechariah 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 dugout5 May 2031
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The dugout5 May 2031
Felix Kyei has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Medeama 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.
Squad5 May 2031
Baba Paintsil slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Baba Paintsil is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Market5 May 2031
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Medeama, another week without a signature from Paul Yeboah.
The dugout5 May 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Apr 2031
Paul Yeboah has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Medeama they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 Apr 2031
A falling-out at Medeama
Abdullahi Usman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Timothy Zechariah 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 dugout7 Apr 2031
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Boardroom7 Apr 2031
The Medeama board find $1.4M for the manager
Money, not words, and it is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending $1.4M well is entirely his problem now.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Victor Oduro named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Victor Oduro is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
Felix Kyei has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Medeama 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.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Samual Nuako slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Samual Nuako is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Market7 Apr 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings3 Mar 2031
Two goals and a mark of 8.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market3 Mar 2031
“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 Medeama, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Mar 2031
19 goals and a season average of 7.32. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout3 Mar 2031
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Player ratings3 Mar 2031
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Timothy Zechariah 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.
Squad3 Mar 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Medeama this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings3 Mar 2031
Marked 8.03 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match1 Mar 2031
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Dec 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings30 Dec 2030
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Abdullahi Usman 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.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Words at Medeama training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timothy Zechariah 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.
Match28 Dec 2030
Medeama come up short against WAFA
WAFA left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout30 Dec 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Usisya Longwe, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Dec 2030
“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 dugout30 Dec 2030
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.
Squad30 Dec 2030
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Medeama will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.