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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Ayew 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.
Christian Tonah 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.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. WAFA deserved better, and so did he.
Nobody at WAFA 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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Abraham Owusu
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jonathan Acquah provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings17 Dec 2029
Samuel Asante, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.91
A mark of 7.91 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Ayew 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.
At 19 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.
Nobody at WAFA 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.
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.
2‑5 to Hasaacas, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
7 goals in one match, Daniel Asamoah on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of WAFA and Hasaacas.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Ayew 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.
Position 15 and 5 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.
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Mohammed Ayew 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.
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.
15 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Ayew 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.
Christian Tonah 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 12 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
0‑3 to Liberty Professionals, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Edmund Acquah 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.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Mohammed Ayew 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.
91 minutes played. Jonathan Appiah found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Wa All Stars went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Two goals and a mark of 8.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 9 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Samuel Asante did not need any: 7.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.28 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jonathan Appiah. 3‑2 against Wa All Stars, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Mohammed Ayew 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Samuel Asante 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.
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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Edmund Acquah 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.
At 32 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Mohammed Ayew 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Abeiku Nuhu has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ernest Addo has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 34 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Ayew 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.
Christian Tonah 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at WAFA can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Ayew 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.
Christian Tonah 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.
Ramahlwe Lorch is 19, and WAFA have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Nobody at WAFA 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Samuel Kudus has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” WAFA have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at WAFA 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Samuel Kudus has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Ayew 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.
Christian Tonah 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.
Nobody at WAFA 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.
Edmund Acquah 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Mohammed Ayew 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Felix Baba.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at WAFA can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about WAFA and Berekum Chelsea in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Ayew 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.
Christian Tonah 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Nobody at WAFA 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.
In brief
SquadWords at WAFA training over how hard people work
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Abraham Owusu
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.27 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Edmund Acquah 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. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Mohammed Ayew 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abraham Owusu. 2‑1 against Bechem United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 23 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at WAFA pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between WAFA and Liberty Professionals, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Abraham Owusu
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what WAFA can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at WAFA is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Ayew 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.
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.
Christian Tonah 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.
9 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.
8 goals in one match, Jonathan Appiah on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of WAFA and Wa All Stars.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Mohammed Ayew 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.
At 23 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.
It needed Jonathan Appiah to find the net to bring anything home at all: 4‑4 against Wa All Stars, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. WAFA lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Samuel Kudus has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The offer from Inter Allies for Abeiku Paintsil 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. WAFA lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Ayew 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. WAFA lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 23 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and New Edubiase United spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Samuel Asante, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.67
A mark of 7.67 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Ayew 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.
A 2‑1 win over New Edubiase United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Samuel Asante 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: Jonathan Appiah. 3‑2 against Bechem United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Ayew 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jonathan Appiah 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.
Christian Tonah 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. WAFA lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 8 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.82, and 2 involvements.
Edmund Acquah 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.
6 goals in one match, Abraham Owusu on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of WAFA and Aduana Stars.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. WAFA lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Ayew 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.
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. WAFA lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jonathan Appiah is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 33 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. WAFA lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 112 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 offer from Heart of Lions for Abeiku Kyereh 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.
Add another name to the list: New Edubiase United have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jonathan Appiah. The answer from WAFA has not changed — yet.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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. 44 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Edmund Acquah 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 WAFA, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adraman Yahaya 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.
Baba Moro Abdulai 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.