Marked for Mohammed Mohammed
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Dec 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wa All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Abraham Acquah
20 goals and a season average of 7.61 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.73 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Samuel Mensah, 21, steals the show — 7.97
Marked 7.97 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Christian Tonah commits to Wa All Stars for another 4 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Christian Tonah and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Abraham Acquah at his very best
Marked 8.60. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Wa All Stars.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Wa All Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A season average of 7.32 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match31 Oct 2026
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.54, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Kamaldeen Ayew and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout2 Nov 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 2‑3 Nana Appiah left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Albert Boakye
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Albert Boakye has come out of that comparison in the side, and Wa All Stars have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Samuel Kyereh
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from New Edubiase United for Samuel Mensah 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Wa All Stars had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Abia Warriors, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wa All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Andre Partey gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gladson Partey commits to Wa All Stars for another 3 years.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nana Ofori was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Samuel Mensah wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Wa All Stars have no good answer.
Market17 Aug 2026
Wa All Stars have let the market know Abdul Paintsil can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Gladson Partey knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gladson Partey trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.