The mood at BA All Stars has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 111 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BA All Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason BA All Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Bechem United moved on, Jonathan Waris reports back to BA All Stars, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Abraham Addo commits to BA All Stars for another 2 years.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohafidh Ahamada 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 2‑0 win over Great Olympics, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Marked 8.52 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason BA All Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom28 Jan 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at BA All Stars
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BA All Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason BA All Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Aduana Stars for Francis Asamoah was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“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 BA All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Harrison Schlupp 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.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. BA All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason BA All Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 15 and 16 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Boardroom31 Dec 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at BA All Stars
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BA All Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. BA All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 BA All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around BA All Stars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at BA All Stars who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at BA All Stars has been clear about where Albert Ayew stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
Boardroom$2.9M taken back off the BA All Stars table
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. BA All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what BA All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around BA All Stars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Edmund Wakaso 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.
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.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. BA All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BA All Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
134 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. BA All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Great Olympics moved on, Francis Asamoah reports back to BA All Stars, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.65, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
“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 BA All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around BA All Stars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Samuel Bukari and BA All Stars agree another 3 years.
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.
148 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. BA All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom20 Aug 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at BA All Stars
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Position 15 and 24 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BA All Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The name of Francis Asamoah has come up in conversations BA All Stars were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohafidh Ahamada 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 easiest signature of my career.” Emmanuel Boateng and BA All Stars agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Add another name to the list: New Edubiase United have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jonathan Waris. The answer from BA All Stars has not changed — yet.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Andrew Ofori 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what BA All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
The phone has started ringing about Joseph Afful again, and this time the name on the line is Inter Allies. BA All Stars are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohafidh Ahamada 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 Boateng 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.
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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abraham Addo and BA All Stars agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Andrew Ofori 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.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Maxwell Mulili's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
Boardroom$3.0M taken back off the BA All Stars table
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nana Boakye 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Afriyie Adjei 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.
“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.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Edmund Wakaso was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.44. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. BA All Stars know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Marked 5.57. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Afriyie Adjei 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 Jul 2028
Andrew Ofori 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what BA All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Afriyie Adjei 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.