73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. APS Bomet lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at APS Bomet this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at APS Bomet 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Duncan Olunga trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad27 Dec 2032
Martin Ochieng is training like a man with a point to make
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on John Kamau
The words a physio says slowly. 125 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.
Ayanda Vete 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.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Sven Yidah 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.
“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.
Cosmas Abuta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2032
Sven Yidah 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Henry Wright after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
John Muguna is 19, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Ayanda Vete 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.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Words at APS Bomet training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sven Yidah 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.
At 19 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: John Muguna. 2‑0 against Mara Sugar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. APS Bomet will try again when the window opens; Posta Rangers may not be selling by then.
The dugout20 Sep 2032
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.” Henry Wright kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at APS Bomet has been clear about where Duncan Olunga stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what APS Bomet can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2032
$12.0K settles it between the clubs for Benson Sakala
Gor Mahia have accepted the money. What APS Bomet do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The deal with Posta Rangers is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it 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 APS Bomet this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$300.00 on the table at Bandari. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Martin Ochieng is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Enock Wanyama 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.
Squad24 May 2032
Sven Yidah 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.
A 1‑1 draw with Kariobangi Sharks leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout24 May 2032
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Henry Wright chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Duncan Olunga's mistake
Ronwen Mothiba, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.77
A mark of 7.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Sven Yidah 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 performance of 8.57 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
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.” Henry Wright kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” George Kagere has his answer from APS Bomet; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
The manager has not finished forgetting Duncan Olunga'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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at APS Bomet 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 Sven Yidah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.04 — 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.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Henry Wright to a room that had heard them before.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at APS Bomet has been clear about where John Muguna stands, which is more than many ever get.
Sven Yidah 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at APS Bomet this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at APS Bomet has been clear about where Hansel Ochieng stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 dugout15 Mar 2032
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Henry Wright was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the APS Bomet dressing room was either.
Marked 4.76. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at APS Bomet this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Dec 2031
Words at APS Bomet training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cosmas Abuta 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sven Yidah signs something — a contract at APS Bomet or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at APS Bomet, and both men came out saying it was fine.