Marked for Patrick Atiemo
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Feb 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Ernest Atiemo
33 goals and a season average of 7.71 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Two goals and a mark of 9.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Tempers go at WAFA
Ernest Atiemo 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.
Match17 Feb 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ernest Atiemo. 3‑2 against Inter Allies, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Harrison Essien 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 terraces19 Feb 2029
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Harrison Essien will call it something else in private.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
“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
Othuke Egbo was unplayable
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Looking ahead
Isaac Bukari faces his old club
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Oct 2028
Harrison Essien damages knee ligaments — 60 days out
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.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
A falling-out at WAFA
Othuke Egbo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match21 Oct 2028
Asante Kotoko left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Oct 2028
A row about effort at WAFA
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Siyabonga Mkhize was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
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 Louis Jacquet left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“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 dugout23 Oct 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Abdul Partey
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.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jul 2028
119 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.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
$620.0K settles it between the clubs for Joseph Afful
Liberty Professionals have accepted the money. What WAFA do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market10 Jul 2028
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.
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Abdul Amoah has agreed terms with Medeama for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at WAFA
Ernest Atiemo 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 targets10 Jul 2028
WAFA offered $55.0K; Aduana Stars said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
WAFA asked and Inter Allies said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Siyabonga Mkhize 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 dugout10 Jul 2028
“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
Crisis
Squad3 Jul 2028
50 goals and a season average of 7.99. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad3 Jul 2028
127 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.
Match28 Jun 2028
The small margins put WAFA out
Out, 0‑2 to Berekum Chelsea, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match28 Jun 2028
8 matches without a win for WAFA
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around WAFA are no longer polite ones.
Squad3 Jul 2028
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. WAFA had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Market3 Jul 2028
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.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
$640.0K was the most the club would pay and Liberty Professionals were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Market3 Jul 2028
The shirt still fits. Patrick Atiemo is back at WAFA, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad3 Jul 2028
A falling-out at WAFA
Abraham Bukari and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
In brief
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Match
WAFA cannot find the net
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Boardroom
WAFA release $4.8M for the manager
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The dugout
Louis Jacquet faces the questions
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
Fee done, terms next for Joseph Afful
WAFA and Liberty Professionals have settled on $570.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market12 Jun 2028
Thomas Nuhu has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around WAFA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Tempers go at WAFA
Dennis Konney 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
A row about effort at WAFA
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Siyabonga Mkhize was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kamaldeen Bukari, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at WAFA, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market12 Jun 2028
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Patrick Atiemo leaves WAFA the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
WAFA keep producing them
10 graduates from an academy now rated 9 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.