Marked for Andre Schlupp
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match1 Jan 2031
Medeama bow out of the cup
Aduana Stars go through and Medeama go home, 2‑6 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match4 Jan 2031
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Ashanti Gold, and it could have been more.
Squad6 Jan 2031
A season average of 7.64 with 20 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The terraces6 Jan 2031
A cup hiding at Aduana Stars leaves Medeama explaining themselves
2-6, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Squad6 Jan 2031
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. Medeama will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Player ratings6 Jan 2031
Baba Paintsil, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market6 Jan 2031
“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 The request is on a desk at Medeama, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout6 Jan 2031
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Market6 Jan 2031
The bid was some way short and Medeama did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Oct 2030
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Bernard Somuah decided nobody was going anywhere. Liberty Professionals had no time left to answer.
Market28 Oct 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Medeama is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Words exchanged at Medeama
Abdullahi Usman 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.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Words at Medeama training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timothy Zechariah 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.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Oct 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bernard Somuah. 2‑1 against Liberty Professionals, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
“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 dugout28 Oct 2030
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.” Emmanuel Inusah kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
Derrick Fordjour has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Medeama 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match2 Oct 2030
Medeama through in the cup
A 3‑0 win over Bechem United, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.04, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
Nana Wakaso could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.20
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.20, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
Marked 8.18 at 18, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match5 Oct 2030
Medeama cannot stop winning
5 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.
Squad7 Oct 2030
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The dugout7 Oct 2030
“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.
Market7 Oct 2030
“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 Medeama, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Oct 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Medeama is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 May 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andre Schlupp and Medeama agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad20 May 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Medeama this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout20 May 2030
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Squad20 May 2030
Timothy Zechariah 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 dugout20 May 2030
Paul Yeboah gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Paul Yeboah is on it.
The dugout20 May 2030
Emmanuel Anning asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 May 2030
Mamudo Moro hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Medeama can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout6 May 2030
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Squad6 May 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Fatawu Sulemana and Medeama agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 May 2030
Words exchanged at Medeama
Aiman Riahi 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.
Squad6 May 2030
Words at Medeama training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timothy Zechariah 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 dugout6 May 2030
The manager makes an example of Isaac Mintah
“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.
Market6 May 2030
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout6 May 2030
Aiman Riahi knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Medeama, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout6 May 2030
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.