“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wa All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Wa All Stars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Wa All Stars asked and Mamelodi Sundowns said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wa All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeffrey Inusah 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.
Mamelodi Sundowns 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Wa All Stars, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Wa All Stars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Orlando Pirates is saying, and nobody at Wa All Stars is enjoying the guessing.
Wa All Stars asked and Mamelodi Sundowns said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeffrey Inusah 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.
Emmanuel 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeffrey Inusah 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nurudeen Abdulai, and the manager let it.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Amos Afful's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jeffrey Inusah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wa All Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Abraham Atiemo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jeffrey Inusah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Wa All Stars. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Emmanuel 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeffrey Inusah 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 young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Wa All Stars who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Emmanuel Atiemo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Wa All Stars, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Nurudeen Abdulai has written the date down.
“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 Great Olympics, and it is not being withdrawn.
13 combined actions and 6.80. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Great Olympics training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Donay Jansen 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.
Minute 88, against Aduana Stars, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emmanuel Atiemo and Wa All Stars agree another 2 years.
Emmanuel Yeboah 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeffrey Inusah 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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Ashanti Gold? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Amos Afful's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Words at Great Olympics training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Donay Jansen 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.
A 1‑1 draw with Aduana Stars leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Thomas Sulemana chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Everything was agreed with another club and then the doctor spoke. Great Olympics have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Everything agreed with Liberty Professionals, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Hearts of Oak is saying, and nobody at Great Olympics is enjoying the guessing.
Musa Afeez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fred Dabanka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Great Olympics were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Great Olympics will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Great Olympics know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Timothy Zechariah has, at Great Olympics, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Great Olympics have done the hard part with Wa All Stars, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Medeama is saying, and nobody at Great Olympics is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Great Olympics this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Fred Dabanka 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jeffrey Afful has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Daniel Gyan has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Albert Boakye is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Albert Asamoah has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Wa All Stars had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Hearts of Oak, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The phone has started ringing about Baba Wakaso again, and this time the name on the line is Heart of Lions. Wa All Stars are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Wa All Stars have made the call to Mamelodi Sundowns. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonah Aryeetey and Great Olympics agree another 3 years.
Simon Obonde 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Fred Dabanka 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Heart of Lions have kept their man, and Great Olympics go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Great Olympics are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Great Olympics 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.
Great Olympics have made the call to Wa All Stars. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.