Marked for Daniel Sulemana
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Aug 2034
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Wa All Stars had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market14 Aug 2034
Medeama say no — this time
The offer from Ashanti Gold for Adams Abdul Jabal 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.
Market14 Aug 2034
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Medeama have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market14 Aug 2034
“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 The request is on a desk at Medeama, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2034
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Medeama have done the hard part with Asante Kotoko, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad14 Aug 2034
Words exchanged at Medeama
Fuzy Taylor 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.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2034
No deal for Osei Prince at that price
Medeama offered $8.0K; Inter Allies said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2034
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout14 Aug 2034
“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
Upbeat
Market17 Jul 2034
“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 The request is on a desk at Medeama, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Words exchanged at Medeama
Fuzy Taylor 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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2034
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Asante Kotoko have kept their man, and Medeama go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Jul 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Sulemana and Medeama agree another 3 years.
The dugout17 Jul 2034
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.
Market17 Jul 2034
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Fuzy Taylor’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout17 Jul 2034
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Adams Abdul Jabal has written the date down.
The dugout17 Jul 2034
Afriyie Nuhu knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Afriyie Nuhu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout17 Jul 2034
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Felix Paintsil has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Jun 2034
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Aduana Stars waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Medeama is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2034
The deal with Asante Kotoko 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.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Emmanuel Asante 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 targets12 Jun 2034
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Asante Kotoko have kept their man, and Medeama go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jun 2034
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad12 Jun 2034
“The easiest signature of my career.” Edmund Bukari and Medeama agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout12 Jun 2034
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 Derrick Fordjour is on it.
Market12 Jun 2034
The Fuzy Taylor story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Fuzy Taylor signs something — a contract at Medeama or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout12 Jun 2034
Felix Paintsil 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Dec 2033
Medeama out of the cup
Liberty Professionals ended it 1‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad2 Jan 2034
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.
The dugout2 Jan 2034
Nana Kudus: 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.” Medeama have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market2 Jan 2034
“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.
Squad2 Jan 2034
A season average of 7.23 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad2 Jan 2034
Fuzy Taylor 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.
Squad2 Jan 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Victor Oduro commits to Medeama for another 2 years.
Transfer targets2 Jan 2034
Medeama asked and Asante Kotoko said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market2 Jan 2034
Add another name to the list: Aduana Stars have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kwadwo Ofori. The answer from Medeama has not changed — yet.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Nov 2033
Words exchanged at Medeama
Fuzy Taylor 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.
Looking ahead14 Nov 2033
A test against the best for Medeama
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Asante Kotoko.
The dugout14 Nov 2033
Gladson Annan 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.
The dugout14 Nov 2033
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout14 Nov 2033
Osman Acquah 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.
The dugout14 Nov 2033
Ernest Ayew knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ernest Ayew trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom5 Sep 2033
Medeama close the window on a squad of their own making
11 in and 9 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.
Transfer targets5 Sep 2033
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Medeama have done the hard part with Asante Kotoko, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market5 Sep 2033
The deal that would have taken Adams Abdul Jabal to Aduana Stars has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Medeama with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad5 Sep 2033
Fuzy Taylor 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 Medeama this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Sep 2033
Graduation day at Medeama
7 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.
Transfer targets5 Sep 2033
Medeama asked and Asante Kotoko said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market5 Sep 2033
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kwame Afful has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market5 Sep 2033
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andrew Kudus has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market5 Sep 2033
One of our own: Amos Mensah joins the Medeama first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Amos Mensah is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.