Marked for Samuel Schlupp
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market20 Jan 2031
Samuel Schlupp has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bechem United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market20 Jan 2031
“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 The request is on a desk at Bechem United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom20 Jan 2031
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Samuel Schlupp has agreed terms with Heart of Lions for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Isaiah Nyarko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets20 Jan 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match18 Jan 2031
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Augustine Afranie 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.
Player ratings20 Jan 2031
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout20 Jan 2031
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Jan 2031
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.
Market6 Jan 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bechem United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout6 Jan 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bechem United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match4 Jan 2031
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Inter Allies were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Transfer targets6 Jan 2031
Bechem United had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Hearts of Oak, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Isaiah Nyarko 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.
Transfer targets6 Jan 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The terraces6 Jan 2031
At 22 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Dec 2030
6 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.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Isaiah Nyarko 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.
Match14 Dec 2030
1‑2 to Liberty Professionals, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout16 Dec 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dennis Votere, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Augustine Afranie 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.
Match16 Dec 2030
Halfway: Bechem United sit in position 14
10 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout16 Dec 2030
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout16 Dec 2030
The manager has not finished forgetting Samuel Schlupp's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Player ratings16 Dec 2030
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Nov 2030
WAFA will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Bechem United were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad4 Nov 2030
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match4 Nov 2030
8 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market4 Nov 2030
“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.
Squad4 Nov 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bechem United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces4 Nov 2030
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Augustine Afranie 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.
Match2 Nov 2030
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and WAFA were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Player ratings4 Nov 2030
Marked 8.40 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings4 Nov 2030
Ninety minutes of Samuel Schlupp at his very best
Marked 8.13. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Bechem United.
In brief
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Squad
Augustine Afranie falls out with a teammate over standards
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Andrew Kudus
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Oct 2030
2‑5 to Berekum Chelsea, 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.
Match2 Oct 2030
Medeama ended it 0‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
Marked 8.79 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.
The terraces7 Oct 2030
0-3. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Market7 Oct 2030
“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 Bechem United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Isaiah Nyarko 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.
The dugout7 Oct 2030
The manager makes an example of Dennis Votere
“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.
In brief
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Player ratings
Isaiah Nyarko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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Boardroom
Inquest at Bechem United
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Sep 2030
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. New Edubiase United will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match28 Sep 2030
12 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and New Edubiase United were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Two goals and a mark of 8.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Isaiah Nyarko 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 terraces30 Sep 2030
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 dugout30 Sep 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Chances created: 11. Somebody has to open a door before anybody can walk through it, and he spent the afternoon opening doors.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Sep 2030
12 matches without a win for Bechem United
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Bechem United are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom23 Sep 2030
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Isaiah Nyarko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Words at Bechem United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Augustine Afranie 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.
Match21 Sep 2030
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Bechem United told Ebenezer Shamo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
Samuel Schlupp asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Sep 2030
11 matches without a win for Bechem United
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Bechem United are no longer polite ones.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout16 Sep 2030
Samuel Schlupp: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bechem United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings16 Sep 2030
Marked 7.94 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.
Market16 Sep 2030
Kwadwo Wakaso hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bechem United can pretend not to have heard.
Market16 Sep 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nana Kofi Babil will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bechem United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Louis Sarpong is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad16 Sep 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bechem United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets16 Sep 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
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.
Market5 Aug 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bechem United can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout5 Aug 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad5 Aug 2030
Isaiah Nyarko 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.
Transfer targets5 Aug 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Augustine Afranie 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 dugout5 Aug 2030
The manager makes an example of Ebenezer Shamo
“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.
Squad5 Aug 2030
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.
Transfer targets5 Aug 2030
A loan move for Nana Asamoah is in the works
Bechem United have made the call to WAFA. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom22 Jul 2030
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bechem United is running low.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Wa All Stars keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad22 Jul 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bechem United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout22 Jul 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Augustine Afranie was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market22 Jul 2030
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
Ashanti Gold 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 dugout22 Jul 2030
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2029
Wa All Stars ended it 3‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Match3 Oct 2029
Godfred Asiamah had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Wa All Stars were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Squad8 Oct 2029
8 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 ratings8 Oct 2029
David Nuhu, 19, steals the show — 8.31
Marked 8.31 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market8 Oct 2029
Kwame Afful hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Great Olympics can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Great Olympics may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match6 Oct 2029
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Great Olympics are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Evans Mensah and Great Olympics agree another 3 years.
Squad8 Oct 2029
George Micheal 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Jul 2029
“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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Manuel Mantey 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.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inter Allies have kept their man, and Great Olympics go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Great Olympics training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eric Oteng 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.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
A loan enquiry to Hearts of Oak: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
A loan enquiry to Hearts of Oak: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
George Micheal has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Great Olympics 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 dugout30 Jul 2029
news_b_reunited_with_his_manager
The dugout30 Jul 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Samuel Schlupp, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
Everything agreed with Aduana Stars, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Eric Oteng 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at Great Olympics training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mustafa 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.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
A loan enquiry to Hearts of Oak: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
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.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
news_b_reunited_with_his_manager
The dugout23 Jul 2029
“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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Great Olympics will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Mar 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.88, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Samuel Schlupp, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.28
A mark of 8.28 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match3 Mar 2029
3‑5 to Liberty Professionals, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Joseph Ablorh 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.
Match3 Mar 2029
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Great Olympics and Liberty Professionals in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eric Oteng was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces5 Mar 2029
At 20 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 dugout5 Mar 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 3‑5, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.