The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.
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.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
$81.0K on the table at Wa All Stars. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at New Edubiase United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Israel Emmanuel is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Musa Wakili 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.
Emmanuel Mensah 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Gladson Atiemo after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, New Edubiase United have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Michael Yeboah and New Edubiase United agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Michael Yeboah 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation New Edubiase United are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Berekum Chelsea 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.
Aduana Stars 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.
New Edubiase United have made the call to Hearts of Oak. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
New Edubiase United have made the call to Liberty Professionals. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.