Marked for Daniel Acquah
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match25 Sep 2027
10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Hasaacas were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Harrison Inusah, 35, rolls back the years — 8.10
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.10 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
Daniel Acquah: 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.” Wa All Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Yaw Djiku in a row with a teammate
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 terraces27 Sep 2027
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match25 Sep 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kwadwo Schlupp. 2‑0 against Hasaacas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Abraham Ayew 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 dugout27 Sep 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
Abraham Ayew gets it from the manager
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Sep 2027
Daniel Acquah 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 Wa All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Wa All Stars close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 10 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market6 Sep 2027
Everything was agreed until it was not, and David Acquah reports back to Wa All Stars with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Yaw 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market6 Sep 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Joseph Paintsil is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market6 Sep 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kwame Mensah is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Wa All Stars is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
A date was given and it came and went. Nobody upstairs will call it a broken promise, and nobody downstairs will call it anything else for a long time.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Nicholas Ablido out for 36 days
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.
Market9 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Wa All Stars people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market9 Aug 2027
The offer from Inter Allies for Francis Sulemana 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
Only the photograph left for Samuel Waris
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samuel Waris will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wa All Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thomas Wakaso and Wa All Stars agree another 4 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Yaw 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.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Thomas Wakaso
“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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Abraham Ayew 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 dugout9 Aug 2027
Yaw Djiku has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Wa All Stars 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
Uneasy
Squad2 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market2 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and New Edubiase United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Wa All Stars is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market2 Aug 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 Wa All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Yaw Djiku in a row with a teammate
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.
Market2 Aug 2027
The name of Francis Sulemana has come up in conversations Wa All Stars were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Francis Sulemana and Wa All Stars agree another 2 years.
Market2 Aug 2027
“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.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
A loan enquiry to Asante Kotoko: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
Thomas Wakaso 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 Wa All Stars, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hasaacas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Wa All Stars is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market14 Jun 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Berekum Chelsea; Wa All Stars go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Squad14 Jun 2027
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Yaw 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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Asante Kotoko have kept their man, and Wa All Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicholas Ablido, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
A loan move for Yaw Annor is in the works
Wa All Stars have made the call to Bechem United. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abraham Ayew 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.