Marked for Patrick Schlupp
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ifeanyi Ihemekwele and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Berekum Chelsea training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kofi Patric Ansu 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Thomas Addo could afford to be generous.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.
Squad21 Sep 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Berekum Chelsea have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Berekum Chelsea asked and Liberty Professionals said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Johnson Amuzu 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andre 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Abdul Atiemo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Thomas Acquah is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mohammed Schlupp is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Berekum Chelsea training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kofi Patric Ansu 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Barau: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Barau: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Liberty Professionals did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Joseph Essien had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Ikorodu City keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Asamoah and Liberty Professionals agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abraham Mensah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Thomas Bukari and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout10 Aug 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.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Daniel Asamoah knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniel Asamoah trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Augustine Agyapong and Berekum Chelsea agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Eric Ofori-Antwi 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 Aug 2026
Samuel Tenedu 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
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Berekum Chelsea know which stage they are at.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Augustine Agyapong’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Harrison Mensah and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Patrick Schlupp has come up in conversations Liberty Professionals were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Liberty Professionals training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Asamoah 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Ikorodu City: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad3 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Mohammed Fatau
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Liberty Professionals will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Daniel Asamoah knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Liberty Professionals, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Mohammed Fatau is 33 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.