“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 The request is on a desk at Liberty Professionals, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 1, 21 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Andre Partey knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I watch every Liberty Professionals game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Great Olympics runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nana Appiah signs something — a contract at Liberty Professionals or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Liberty Professionals, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Abraham Kudus leaves Liberty Professionals the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Kamaldeen Atiemo: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Liberty Professionals can pretend not to have heard.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andre Partey trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Liberty Professionals, another week without a signature from Abdul Sulemana.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Osman Kudus and Liberty Professionals agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Osman Kudus trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Liberty Professionals has been clear about where Abraham Kudus stands, which is more than many ever get.