“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 The request is on a desk at Bandari, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bandari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mara Sugar waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bandari is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Erick Balecho will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bandari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Gor Mahia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Erickson Mulu 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alfred Emoni. 2‑0 against APS Bomet, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bandari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Izzadin Juma will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bandari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bandari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Bandari, and 2 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Clinton Ochieng on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Levis Opiyo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Izzadin Juma will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bandari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bandari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hassan Abdallah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Clinton Ochieng could afford to be generous.
“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 Bandari, and it is not being withdrawn.
This is not rotation. Mohammed Barisa has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Bandari is pretending otherwise.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Bandari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hassan Abdallah 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 Bandari can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bandari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bandari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hassan Abdallah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
William Wadri 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.
Everybody at Bandari saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Morgan Dala is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Gift Furman 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Phakamani Mahlambi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Black Aces 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Black Aces, and both men came out saying it was fine.