It had gone 11 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Campobasso
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Campobasso close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Gabriele Corbo 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Vladimir Fedotov is living that version at Campobasso, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Gargiulo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Samuele Spalluto. 2‑1 against Livorno, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 20 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.
In brief
Player ratingsAndrea Franzolini was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Ifeanyi Ihemekwele 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 easiest signature of my career.” Osman Inusah and Wa All Stars agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kelvin Andoh 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 name of Samuel Ayew has come up in conversations Wa All Stars were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Wa All Stars could ask drops and the wages Mohammed Afful can ask rise.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Maurice Sunga on the training pitch
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Wa All Stars will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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.
The offer from Bechem United for Samuel Ayew 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.
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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Nana Kwame 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.
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.
Odah Marshall 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nana Kwame was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Wa All Stars will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Albert Djiku has written the date down.
“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.
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.
In brief
SquadKelvin Andoh falls out with a teammate over standards
The dugoutAndrew Boakye has become a man the manager trusts
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wa All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Thomas Bukari 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kelvin Andoh 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 at Wa All Stars will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Wa All Stars would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kelvin Andoh 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Odah Marshall trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Wa All Stars will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ifeanyi Ihemekwele has written the date down.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Wa All Stars will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Wa All Stars would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Wa All Stars could ask drops and the wages Mohammed Afful can ask rise.
In brief
BoardroomThe Wa All Stars production line keeps running
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wa All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Kelvin Andoh 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.
Nobody at Wa All Stars will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Wa All Stars, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Kwame Essien on the training pitch
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wa All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Wa All Stars will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nana Kwame was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kwame Essien is on it.
Odah Marshall 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kelvin Andoh 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 at Wa All Stars will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ifeanyi Ihemekwele has written the date down.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Wa All Stars will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Edmund Sulemana trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Mohammed Afful’s negotiating for him
BoardroomThe Wa All Stars production line keeps running
0‑6 against Bechem United, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Thomas Bukari and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match11 Mar 2028
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Wa All Stars and Bechem United in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Kelvin Andoh 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.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Wa All Stars deserved better, and so did he.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Wa All Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Aduana Stars the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Wa All Stars will enjoy reviewing.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.41, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
A brace, and Amos Boateng takes the afternoon — 8.09
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Amos Boateng provided it, and the 8.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The deal that would have taken Samuel Ayew to BA All Stars has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Wa All Stars with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
In brief
Player ratingsA hand in 2 of them from Nana Kwame — 7.88
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Wa All Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Wa All Stars people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The deal with Barau is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Odah Marshall 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 words a physio says slowly. 75 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.09 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Thomas Bukari 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Wa All Stars and New Edubiase United, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Marked 8.93 — 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.
113 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Wa All Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 9.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wa All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Odah Marshall 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.
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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Great Olympics spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Kelvin Andoh damages knee ligaments — 121 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 121 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wa All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Isaac Atiemo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Wa All Stars told Chimezie Njoku something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutBernard Djiku knocks on the manager's door
“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.
Odah Marshall 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Isaac Atiemo 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.
Nobody at Wa All Stars will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
A brace, and Andrew Boakye takes the afternoon — 8.73
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andrew Boakye provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.07 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Odah Marshall 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kelvin Andoh 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Christian Boakye 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Andrew Boakye
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Andrew Boakye has come out of that comparison in the side, and Wa All Stars have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Isaac Acquah, on a 4‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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 2, 70 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.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something 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 Wa All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Kwame Essien has improved at 27, 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.
Nobody at Wa All Stars will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Wa All Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Christian Boakye is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Odah Marshall 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.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Nobody at Wa All Stars will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohammed Afful trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
Odah Marshall 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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.
Nobody at Wa All Stars will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The deal with Niger Tornadoes is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Isaac Atiemo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Odah Marshall has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
“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.
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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kelvin Andoh 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 manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Thomas Bukari is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joseph Asamoah trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Wa All Stars will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Atiemo 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.
11 goals in 20 games at El-Kanemi Warriors — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Wa All Stars updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nobody at Wa All Stars will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Christian Boakye has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
In brief
Loan watchAndrew Boakye watches his loan from the bench
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Wa All Stars will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kelvin Andoh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 goals in 19 games at El-Kanemi Warriors — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Wa All Stars updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nobody at Wa All Stars will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.