The offer from BATE for Andre Essien 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 Wa All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Wa All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 The request is on a desk at Wa All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Wa All Stars have had the benefit of it.
Add another name to the list: Cotonsport Garoua have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tauzy. The answer from Wa All Stars has not changed — yet.
Samuel Gyan 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abeiku Boateng 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
BoardroomWa All Stars sign 7 boys into the academy
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Wa All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The name of Andre Essien has come up in conversations Wa All Stars were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
In brief
SquadAbeiku Boateng falls out with a teammate over standards
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Wa All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Samuel Gyan 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 words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Wa All Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
“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.
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.
Samuel Gyan 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Youssef Ahmed Hassan, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abeiku Boateng 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.
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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Samuel Gyan 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Phillip Leksit is living that version at Wa All Stars, and it tends to show in the first month.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Wa All Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
Samuel Gyan 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.
0‑1 to BA All Stars, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abeiku Boateng 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 terracesThe spotlight tightens on Daniel Djiku
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Wa All Stars will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Wa All Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Hamisu Ibrahim is living that version at Wa All Stars, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Youssef Ahmed Hassan 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Wa All Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
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 hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Andre Essien did not need any: 7.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Wa All Stars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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.
Marked 6.73 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Kingsford Boakye 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.
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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Samuel Gyan has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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.
$6.4M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Wa All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
He is going to Brondby, the club has $6.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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 Wa All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadSamuel Gyan has improved at 25, which nobody expected
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Wa All Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Wa All Stars will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Wa All Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
22 games, 1 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Wa All Stars now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
In brief
BoardroomWa All Stars release $121.0K for the manager
BoardroomWa All Stars sign 6 boys into the academy
Kelvin Andoh damages knee ligaments — 104 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 104 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Wa All Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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.
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.
Thomas Djiku 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.
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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Suaibo Jassi 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.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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.
Thomas Djiku 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.76, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Nobody at Wa All Stars is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Andre Essien did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Bechem United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Sefah 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 easiest signature of my career.” Augustine Okrah and Bechem United agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
15 combined actions and 7.11. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Emmanuel Abban. 1‑0 against Aduana Stars, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Afriyie Essien will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wa All Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Samuel Gyan 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kelvin Andoh, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abeiku Boateng 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Feb 2027
7 new faces, and Wa All Stars are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Suaibo Jassi is 20, and Wa All Stars have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“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.
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.
Baba Moro Abdulai 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Andre Essien is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
4 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.
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.
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.
“I did not go to Ashanti Gold to sit and watch. I want to come back to Bechem United and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 19 matches say the rest.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Bechem United have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Bechem United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Frank Amankwah 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Bechem United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Frank Amankwah 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.
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Asante Kotoko? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bechem United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Isaiah Nyarko. 1‑0 against Great Olympics, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
19 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Foster Gyamfi
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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Medeama? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
“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 Bechem United, and 3 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Baba Moro Abdulai 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Emmanuel Sefah is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
31 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Jonathan Boakye could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.25
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.25, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Bassey John 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.
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Wa All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.78 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A conversation is coming this week. Wa All Stars will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bernard Baba 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.
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bechem United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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 name of Emmanuel Ababio has come up in conversations Bechem United were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
A conversation is coming this week. Bechem United will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Bechem United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andre Essien 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.