Marked for Jonathan Atiemo
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match25 Dec 2027
WAFA make home a hard place to visit
22 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Match25 Dec 2027
17 unbeaten for WAFA
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 17 matches without defeat is a foundation WAFA did not have in the autumn.
Market27 Dec 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 The request is on a desk at WAFA, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Jonathan Atiemo: 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.” WAFA have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Defensive actions: 21, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Christian Mensah 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.
Squad27 Dec 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 WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Christian Mensah has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at WAFA 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.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
14 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Dec 2027
WAFA make home a hard place to visit
20 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Match4 Dec 2027
Still nobody has beaten WAFA
The unbeaten run reaches 14. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match4 Dec 2027
The wait goes on for WAFA
9 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.
Squad6 Dec 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 WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Mehdi Khallati 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 ratings6 Dec 2027
Both jobs done by Yaw Acquah — 6.69
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.69, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Defensive actions: 18. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jonathan Atiemo commits to WAFA for another 3 years.
In brief
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Player ratings
A defender's afternoon for Andrew Owusu
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Squad
A place in the month's best eleven for Andre Boakye
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Match
Point won or two lost for WAFA?
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Jun 2027
Tempers go at WAFA
Mehdi Khallati 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Christian Mensah 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
The David Addo conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Great Olympics will make the call about David Addo this week. WAFA have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Harrison Nuhu has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at WAFA 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
David Addo is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at WAFA has been clear about where David Addo stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad14 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Jonathan Atiemo
“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
Steady
Squad19 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” WAFA may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Apr 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 WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at WAFA training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Mensah 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.