Marked for Andre Waris
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Oct 2028
Chastening afternoon for Wa All Stars
A 0‑4 beating by Ashanti Gold was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Ahmed Adams: 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.” Wa All Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Oct 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 Wa All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Inusah 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.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
Nobody left the Wa All Stars dressing room in a hurry
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Aug 2028
Only the photograph left for Harrison Addo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harrison Addo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wa All Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad28 Aug 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 Wa All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Issa Ndoram gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Issa Ndoram has just signed for Wa All Stars, and for once the answer mattered.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Jan 2028
Beaten 0‑6 by Hearts of Oak, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Wa All Stars may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market10 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Kamaldeen Atiemo 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.
Match8 Jan 2028
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Wa All Stars and Hearts of Oak, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Isaac Inusah 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andre Waris and Wa All Stars agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom10 Jan 2028
Nobody left the Wa All Stars dressing room in a hurry
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.
Loan watch10 Jan 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Wa All Stars, and 5 appearances in 26 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Sep 2027
0‑5 against Hearts of Oak, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match25 Sep 2027
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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kamaldeen Atiemo commits to Wa All Stars for another 4 years.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Kamaldeen Atiemo 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Andre Waris has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Isaac Inusah 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
Pressure builds in the Wa All Stars boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market29 Mar 2027
“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 Wa All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match27 Mar 2027
It finished 3‑1, and it was Isaac Inusah’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Wa All Stars.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andre Waris and Wa All Stars agree another 4 years.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Inusah 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Francis 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 terraces29 Mar 2027
At 21 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Kwame Kudus pulls a muscle — 17 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.