Marked for Bernard Atiemo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Feb 2030
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Ahmed Chentouf 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.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Seun Ogunribide 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.
Match9 Feb 2030
0‑2 to Hearts of Oak, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad11 Feb 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdulhamid Kabiru and Inter Allies agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings11 Feb 2030
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Feb 2030
31 goals and a season average of 7.67. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings4 Feb 2030
A brace, and Luan Santos takes the afternoon — 8.89
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luan Santos provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad4 Feb 2030
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Fabien Dongmo: 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.” Inter Allies have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Match2 Feb 2030
Three points for Inter Allies, 2‑1 the final word against Hasaacas in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces4 Feb 2030
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Edmund Waris has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings4 Feb 2030
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market4 Feb 2030
The window shut and Ademola Adebambo is still in the building
Inter Allies spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Nov 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mohammed Fatau
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Liberty Professionals lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad6 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Liberty Professionals this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match4 Nov 2028
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.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Abdul Razak Alhassan 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.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Match4 Nov 2028
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Aduana Stars came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market6 Nov 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Francis Afful signs something — a contract at Liberty Professionals or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.