It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BA 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 Bernard Somuah 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 Abeiku Mensah is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdul Schlupp trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Voždovac will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Voždovac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Voždovac are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bernard Somuah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“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 dugout26 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Felix Annan
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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 a squad player is on it.
At 30 he has made the position his own, and the man he took it from has to find something to say about it. BA All Stars have a decision that made itself.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Voždovac will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Erwin Bahonko is living that version at Voždovac, and it tends to show in the first month.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andre Waris. 1‑0 against Dinamo Vranje, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
OFK Vršac next, and one man in the Voždovac dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Djiku 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.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Voždovac will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Voždovac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Andre Waris 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andre Waris. 1‑0 against Borac Čačak, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 7.54 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Voždovac had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Novak Petrovic kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Gibson Okocha 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.
“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 Voždovac, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Novak Petrovic left the room before anybody could ask which.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Voždovac are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Loznica in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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 BA All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sa'ad Tijjani has just signed for BA All Stars, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BA 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 Christian Djiku was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation BA All Stars are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and El-Kanemi Warriors waiting with a shirt. Nobody at BA All Stars is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Daniel Mohammed 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 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.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. BA All Stars would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Mohammed Afful keeps the shirt for now, at BA All Stars's convenience rather than his own.
A season-long audition: Hasaacas still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are BA All Stars's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohammed Afful and BA All Stars agree another 3 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Heart of Lions have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Olisa Oduya. The answer from BA All Stars has not changed — yet.
BA All Stars 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abraham Wakaso 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 offer from ES Ben Aknoun for Andre Waris 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.
Daniel Mohammed 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 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 makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. BA All Stars will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“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.