Marked for Jonathan Baba
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces17 Jul 2028
The mood at Wa All Stars has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad17 Jul 2028
A fracture rules Francis Schlupp out for 17 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.
Market17 Jul 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Wa All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Jul 2028
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.
Market17 Jul 2028
The name of Samuel Atiemo has come up in conversations Wa All Stars were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Rueben Owusu Boadu 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rueben Owusu Boadu 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Kwadwo Atiemo 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Jonathan Baba 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
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Wa All Stars
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Wa All Stars is running low.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rueben Owusu Boadu 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Edmund Inusah commits to Wa All Stars for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Nov 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.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
Pressure builds in the Wa All Stars boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Christian Ofori 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.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Rueben Owusu Boadu 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.
Match30 Oct 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces11 Oct 2027
Anger at Wa All Stars spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
A brace, and Frank Abora Duku takes the afternoon — 8.04
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Frank Abora Duku provided it, and the 8.04 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
A debut Jonathan Baba will not forget — 7.69
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.69 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Market11 Oct 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.
Squad11 Oct 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 Wa All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Wa All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rueben Owusu Boadu 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 terraces11 Oct 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Frank Abora Duku 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.