Marked for Thomas Owusu
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market23 Aug 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 The request is on a desk at Aduana Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
This is not rotation. Alex Boakye has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Aduana Stars is pretending otherwise.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Skima Togbe 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.
Market23 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Aduana Stars have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Awuni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad23 Aug 2027
44 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to William Dankyi, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
A loan enquiry to Medeama: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market23 Aug 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Massawudu Inusah has his answer from Aduana Stars; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Jun 2027
A fracture rules Massawudu Inusah out for 50 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aduana Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aduana Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Aduana Stars people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Skima Togbe 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Kuffour was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to William Dankyi, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
A loan move for Emmanuel Olisa is in the works
Aduana Stars have made the call to Remo Stars. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Nasarawa United: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 May 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market24 May 2027
Osei Prince has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aduana Stars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 May 2027
Skima Togbe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thomas Owusu and Aduana Stars agree another 4 years.
Squad24 May 2027
Daouda Sidibé 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
Uneasy
Squad10 May 2027
A fracture rules Massawudu Inusah out for 79 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aduana Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market10 May 2027
“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.
Squad10 May 2027
Skima Togbe 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daouda Sidibé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 May 2027
Something was said to Thomas Owusu and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout10 May 2027
Bright Adjei knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aduana Stars, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout10 May 2027
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 dugout10 May 2027
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.
Squad10 May 2027
The penny has dropped for Skima Togbe
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Aduana Stars the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Jan 2027
11 matches without a win for Aduana Stars
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Aduana Stars are no longer polite ones.
Market1 Feb 2027
Daniel Awuni hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aduana Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Great Olympics had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Aduana Stars until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The deal with Hearts of Oak 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Skima Togbe in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aduana Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thomas Owusu and Aduana Stars agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Osasuna have kept their man, and Aduana Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Sam Adams, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Aduana Stars's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Aduana Stars has to find a result from somewhere.
Market25 Jan 2027
The offer from Bechem United for Daniel Awuni 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
The deal with Liberty Professionals 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Only the photograph left for Boa-At Regain
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Boa-At Regain will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aduana Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Stephen Badu in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aduana Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Aduana Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. William Dankyi 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Hearts of Oak scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Home comes calling for Skima Togbe
A club from his own country has asked the question, and he has never pretended he did not want to be asked. Aduana Stars have a conversation ahead of them that they will not win with money.
Market25 Jan 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by Berekum Chelsea, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market25 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Berekum Chelsea waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Liberty Professionals is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Supporters turn on the $110.0K sale of Thomas Owusu
He is going to Aduana Stars, the club has $110.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market25 Jan 2027
Aduana Stars pay $110.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Liberty Professionals asked and FC Nordsjaelland said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Steven Nufour 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Sa'ad Tijjani 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.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match9 Jan 2027
Kamaldeen Owusu had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Inter Allies were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Market11 Jan 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Liberty Professionals people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market11 Jan 2027
The bid was some way short and Liberty Professionals did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market11 Jan 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 Liberty Professionals, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Liberty Professionals have done the hard part with Plateau United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Ohene was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Liberty Professionals asked and WAFA said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Andrew Bukari and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 35. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match30 Dec 2026
A 1‑0 win over Wa All Stars, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Jonathan Mensah, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.27
A mark of 8.27 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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.
Match2 Jan 2027
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. BA All Stars have kept their man, and Liberty Professionals go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Andrew 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.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Jonathan Mensah 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Liberty Professionals have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Ohene was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Deruo Wisdom 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 9. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Asante Kotoko for Andrew Bukari 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Sa'ad Tijjani would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sa'ad Tijjani is living that version at Liberty Professionals, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Andrew 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kamaldeen Owusu, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Liberty Professionals training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sa'ad Tijjani 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
“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 Ubong Williams.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Real Bamako have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.