10 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Gor Mahia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Frank Odhiambo 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 Gor Mahia who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Erick Zwane 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Kenya Police will make the call about Harun Owusu this week. Gor Mahia have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Frank Odhiambo 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Gor Mahia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alpha Onyango 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.
Marked 8.88 — 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 12 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gor Mahia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
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.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Frank Odhiambo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.16. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gor Mahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gor Mahia can pretend not to have heard.
Enock Morrison 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 Jan 2028
Words at Gor Mahia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Frank Odhiambo 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.
In brief
BoardroomThe numbers do not look good at Gor Mahia
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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.
Position 1, 76 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gor Mahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Alpha Onyango 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Gor Mahia training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 56 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
65 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gor Mahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gor Mahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Gor Mahia have had the benefit of it.
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gor Mahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gor Mahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gor Mahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gor Mahia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadFrank Odhiambo falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 87 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gor Mahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Frank Odhiambo 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Gor Mahia training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 94 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gor Mahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gor Mahia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadFrank Odhiambo falls out with a teammate over standards
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gor Mahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gor Mahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Frank Odhiambo 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Gor Mahia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alpha Onyango 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 is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gor Mahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
The words a physio says slowly. 119 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Enock Morrison obliged against Bandari. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Gor Mahia.
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gor Mahia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Sule John 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.
In brief
Player ratingsEnock Morrison was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The words a physio says slowly. 126 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gor Mahia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadAlpha Onyango falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 133 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gor Mahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Enock Morrison 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Gor Mahia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alpha Onyango 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
141 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gor Mahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gor Mahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
148 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gor Mahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gor Mahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gor Mahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gor Mahia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Enock Morrison was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.77. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gor Mahia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gor Mahia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Enock Morrison 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.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Gor Mahia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alpha Onyango 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 is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gor Mahia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Erick Zwane has just signed for Gor Mahia, and for once the answer mattered.
Ulinzi Stars will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Leonlevitt Osiago has pre-agreed a move to Gor Mahia, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Alpha Onyango 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.