Salim Adams 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jai Semenyo has just signed for BA All Stars, and for once the answer mattered.
A 1‑0 win over Great Olympics, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kamaldeen Gyan and BA All Stars agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I did not go to Great Olympics to sit and watch. I want to come back to BA All Stars and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.80, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Salim Adams 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.
Isaac Frimpong 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrew Djiku. 2‑0 against Wa All Stars, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at BA All Stars, another week without a signature from Chinedu Chukwu.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutAndrew Djiku has become a man the manager trusts
A 3‑0 win over Asante Kotoko, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Andrew Djiku takes the afternoon — 8.76
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andrew Djiku provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Chinedu Chukwu 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrew Djiku. 2‑1 against Ashanti Gold, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Elvis Addo 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.
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.” Emmanuel Essien and BA All Stars agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout5 Oct 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 Kwadwo Asamoah left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samba Sissoko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kamaldeen Wakaso has his answer from BA All Stars; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Chinedu Chukwu 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: 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.
A 1‑1 draw with WAFA leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Kwadwo Asamoah was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the BA All Stars dressing room was either.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Salim Adams’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and BA All Stars needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Salim Adams 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.
He is 23 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Andrew Djiku was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Francis Owusu 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
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.” Kwadwo Asamoah, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
Salim Adams 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.
Marked 6.71 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“I watch every BA All Stars 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.
5 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.
Shots: 12. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Kwadwo Asamoah after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
SquadWords at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Chinedu Chukwu 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. WAFA 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 Salim Adams was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.