Marked for Emmanuel Asamoah
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market27 Mar 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Abdul Adjei 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Afriyie Baba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Afriyie Baba gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Afriyie Baba is on it.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Afriyie Baba 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 Afriyie Baba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market27 Mar 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
The leaders are next for Wa All Stars
Asante Kotoko top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
Market27 Mar 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Kwadwo Partey may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market27 Mar 2028
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Emmanuel Asamoah leaves Wa All Stars the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Wa All Stars may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market20 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Harrison Nuhu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdul Adjei 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.
Match18 Mar 2028
0‑1 to Liberty Professionals, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gladson Mensah, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Samuel Afful after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad20 Mar 2028
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. Wa All Stars lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Harrison Afful is the weekend's best young player
At 18 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Jan 2028
The bid was some way short and Wa All Stars did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market24 Jan 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Wa All Stars have done the hard part with Medeama, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Abdul Adjei 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Steven Nufour 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.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Liberty Professionals have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
Afriyie Baba has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Wa All Stars 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 dugout24 Jan 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Samuel Afful after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Dec 2027
The knee: Afriyie Baba out for 38 days
38 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
12 matches without a win for Wa All Stars
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Wa All Stars are no longer polite ones.
Market20 Dec 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
This is not rotation. Steven Nufour has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Wa All Stars is pretending otherwise.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Harrison Nuhu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdul Adjei 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.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nana Amoah, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Dec 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andre Schlupp and Wa All Stars agree another 3 years.
Match18 Dec 2027
It needed Thomas Ayew to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Bechem United, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Sep 2027
72 days out for Chukwudi Ekeocha after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Wa All Stars will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market6 Sep 2027
“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 Wa All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Window shuts: 6 in, 3 out at Wa All Stars
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 6 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Edmund Atiemo is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market6 Sep 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andre Ofori 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.
Market6 Sep 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gladson Ofori 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.
Market6 Sep 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Abeiku Boateng is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.