Marked for El Sayed Soliman
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match29 Sep 2035
40 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The terraces1 Oct 2035
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.
Squad1 Oct 2035
Gideon Iliya 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.
Squad1 Oct 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” El Sayed Soliman and New Edubiase United agree another 2 years.
Match29 Sep 2035
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad1 Oct 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edmund Ofori, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Sep 2035
39 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at New Edubiase United has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Sep 2035
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match22 Sep 2035
1‑4 against Bechem United, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Adeyemo Bolaji 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.
Squad24 Sep 2035
“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.
Boardroom24 Sep 2035
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 May 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Michael Yeboah
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. New Edubiase United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 May 2035
Gideon Iliya 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 New Edubiase United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 May 2035
Samuel Amofa 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 Samuel Amofa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
Jonathan Inusah has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at New Edubiase United can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market5 Jun 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at New Edubiase United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Jun 2034
“The easiest signature of my career.” Adeyemo Bolaji and New Edubiase United agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Adeyemo Bolaji 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.
Market5 Jun 2034
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” El Sayed Soliman has his answer from New Edubiase United; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Kamaldeen Asamoah loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Kamaldeen Asamoah's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.