Marked for Abdul Asante
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Nobody could get near Eric Oteng
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market1 Jan 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Eric Oteng 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 Jan 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Souleymane Tamboura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match30 Dec 2028
Berekum Chelsea left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
When it matters, Eric Oteng plays
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.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Abdul Asante
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Dec 2028
0‑3 against Asante Kotoko, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match2 Dec 2028
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Liberty Professionals has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad4 Dec 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.
Match2 Dec 2028
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Souleymane Tamboura 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.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Rajab Omar
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Mar 2027
31 goals and a season average of 7.86 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
A brace, and Souleymane Tamboura takes the afternoon — 9.44
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Souleymane Tamboura provided it, and the 9.44 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Andrew Nuhu, 21, steals the show — 8.42
Marked 8.42 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market15 Mar 2027
Isaac Waris has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Liberty Professionals they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Anderson Asiedu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match13 Mar 2027
9 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.
The terraces15 Mar 2027
He is 20 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 ratings15 Mar 2027
Ninety minutes of Afriyie Boakye at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Liberty Professionals.