25 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at WAFA, and it is not being withdrawn.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Edmund Ofori 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.
“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.
The dugout15 Feb 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Nana Boateng to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutThomas Addo knocks on the manager’s door
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.
0‑3 against Asante Kotoko, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
10 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at WAFA, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal that would have taken Samuel Gyan to Wa All Stars has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to WAFA with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Thomas Addo 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.
Position 16 and 4 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.
“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.
“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.
The offer from Cotonsport Garoua for Abdul Addo 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.
Osman Partey 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.
WAFA asked and Liberty Professionals said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 offer from Cotonsport Garoua for Christian Annan 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.
Everything agreed with Hearts of Oak, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Addo 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.
“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 offer from Inter Allies for Isaac Sulemana 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Thomas Addo 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.
Minute 88, against Aduana Stars, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
18 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.
Samuel Gyan 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Thomas Addo 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.
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.
“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.
8 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at WAFA can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Addo 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.
Mamadou Soumare and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 Dec 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 0‑2 Nana Boateng left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
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.
“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.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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.
Osman Partey 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 easiest signature of my career.” Christian Nuhu and WAFA agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Thomas Addo 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.
Position 16 and 3 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.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Samuel Gyan 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 had been thinking. Thomas Addo 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.
Heart of Lions left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Nana Boateng to a room that had heard them before.
13 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.
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.
“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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at WAFA can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edmund Ofori 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Kwame Ofori
The dugoutAmos Mensah knocks on the manager’s door
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. WAFA lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Kwame Ofori, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.82
A mark of 7.82 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Thomas Addo 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 87. Asante Kotoko had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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.
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.
8 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thomas Addo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout19 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 0‑3 Nana Boateng left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutKwame Ofori knocks on the manager's door
83 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.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.33 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
“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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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. Edmund Ofori 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 point taken on 89 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.
90 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. WAFA lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abeiku Appiah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around WAFA the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Thomas Addo 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.
WAFA ran out of time with BA All Stars. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. WAFA lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Osman Partey 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.
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Thomas Addo 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.