Marked for Christian Partey
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
21 days out for Daniel Essien after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Liberty Professionals will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Elvis Manu 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Liberty Professionals asked and Dynamo Kyiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and a squad player was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Market17 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Narva Trans: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market17 Aug 2026
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Yakubu Abbas arrives at Liberty Professionals with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
28 days out for Daniel Essien after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Liberty Professionals will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market10 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Liberty Professionals have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Elvis Manu in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Gladson Schlupp 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.
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Elvis Manu 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Kwadwo Kyereh has come up in conversations Liberty Professionals were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and a squad player was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Elvis Manu has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Liberty Professionals know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Asante Kotoko: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Asante Kotoko: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Christian Partey trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market3 Aug 2026
Elvis Manu arrives at 33 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Market3 Aug 2026
The Samuel Baba story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Samuel Baba signs something — a contract at Liberty Professionals or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.