Supporters organise against the BA All Stars board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jeffrey Annan is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Jeffrey Annan 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Abdul Afful has improved at 25, 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Great Olympics have kept their man, and BA All Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albert Bukari 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.
BA All Stars have made the call to Hasaacas. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Jeffrey Annan is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Baba Adjei has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. New Edubiase United have kept their man, and BA All Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Albert Bukari 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Nana Nuhu
The dugoutJeffrey Owusu asks for a word with the manager
The mood at BA All Stars has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The words a physio says slowly. 51 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.
Boardroom24 Apr 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at BA All Stars
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Jeffrey Annan 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Albert Bukari 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.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. BA All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” BA All Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Dehinde Ibrahim 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 BA All Stars, and 4 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. BA All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jeffrey Annan and BA All Stars agree another 5 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albert Bukari 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 Abdul Afful is on it.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. BA All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Baba Adjei has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Liberty Professionals go through and BA All Stars go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
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 easiest signature of my career.” Dehinde Ibrahim and BA All Stars agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Baba Adjei to a room that had heard them before.
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 Albert Bukari is on it.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
89 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. BA All Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 14 on 22 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Jeffrey Annan 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 words a physio says slowly. 96 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 14 and 19 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jeffrey Annan did not need any: 7.78, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Berekum Chelsea left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albert Bukari 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.
Adama Soumare 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.
103 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. BA All Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jeffrey Annan did not need any: 8.09, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Albert Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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 Abdul Afful is on it.
110 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. BA All Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Baba Adjei has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Jeffrey Annan, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.79
A mark of 7.79 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at BA All Stars pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.
Supporters organise against the BA All Stars board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
117 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. BA All Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Jeffrey Annan 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Albert Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 91 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The words a physio says slowly. 124 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.
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.
Jeffrey Annan 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.
Jeffrey Annan scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Asante Kotoko, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albert Bukari 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Baba Adjei after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
131 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. BA All Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A 1‑0 win over Liberty Professionals, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
BA All Stars ran out of time with Wa All Stars. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gladson Asamoah and BA All Stars agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
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.” Baba Adjei, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutNo place for Osman Partey on the big day
The words a physio says slowly. 140 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.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.84, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
BA All Stars close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 0 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.26, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
2‑3 to Great Olympics, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albert Bukari 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 mood at BA All Stars has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
147 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. BA All Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 8.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Jeffrey Annan, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.57
A mark of 8.57 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at BA All Stars is running low.
“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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” BA All Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. BA All Stars have done the hard part with Aduana Stars, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
154 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. BA All Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 15 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Berekum Chelsea have accepted the money. What BA All Stars do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Jeffrey Annan 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.
“I watch every BA All Stars game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dila runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Baba Adjei to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
SquadAlbert Asamoah falls out with a teammate over standards
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Ashanti Gold are out and BA All Stars go through, 3‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Jeffrey Annan, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 9.89
A mark of 9.89 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.
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Dehinde Ibrahim decided nobody was going anywhere. WAFA had no time left to answer.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at BA All Stars is running low.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” BA All Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
12 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.
Jeffrey Annan 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 Nov 2027
Albert Bukari 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Baba Adjei after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at BA 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.
Something was said to Albert Asamoah and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. BA All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Baba Adjei after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
111 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. BA All Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
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 Jeffrey Annan is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Francis Appiah trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
132 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. BA All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at BA All Stars
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
“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.
Albert 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.
The name of Kwadwo Wakaso has come up in conversations BA All Stars were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
New Edubiase United pay $900.00, 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Kwadwo Wakaso 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.
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 Kamaldeen Essien is on it.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
In brief
The dugoutJoseph Essien knocks on the manager’s door