15 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 terraces1 Mar 2027
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.
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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and BA All Stars know it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thomas Boateng and BA All Stars agree another 3 years.
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 Kwadwo Atiemo.
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.
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.
Kwame Waris 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anass Moulhami, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
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 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Gladson Sulemana to a room that had heard them before.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Suleiman Badaru 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at BA All Stars, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. BA All Stars have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
In brief
Player ratingsHalf an hour was enough for Yaw Bukari
The words a physio says slowly. 60 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.
0‑4 against Aduana Stars, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Beaten 4 times, 3 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
103 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.
Moses Moffi 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 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 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Thomas Essien
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 squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Stephen Appiah Asare’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.
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
BA All Stars close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 3 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Golden Arrows is saying, and nobody at BA All Stars is enjoying the guessing.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ernest Kudus is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ernest Asamoah 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Francis Mensah is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.