14 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Nicholas Wanyama has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jesse Mwendwa is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mara Sugar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Jim Owili 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Collins Juma, and the manager let it.
Squad18 Feb 2030
A Mara Sugar teenager takes the young player award
David Njeru is 17, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Kariobangi Sharks? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
8 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.
Jim Owili 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.
It needed David Njeru to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Mathare United, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad11 Feb 2030
The manager has not finished forgetting Ibrahim Ochieng's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
In brief
Player ratingsOff the bench and decisive: Duncan Muguna
“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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
David Njeru 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.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Mara Sugar could ask drops and the wages Robinson Musungu can ask rise.
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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Mara Sugar is running low.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mara Sugar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mara Sugar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words at Mara Sugar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Njeru 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mara Sugar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tenuka Ranaweera trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
SquadDavid Njeru falls out with a teammate over standards
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mara Sugar can pretend not to have heard.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mara Sugar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Victor Omurwa is 15, and Mara Sugar have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Francis Miheso is 16, and Mara Sugar have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Brian Ochieng
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Mara Sugar can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Mara Sugar can tell you which week it ends in.
Evans Omondi Ouma 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Sep 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for David Njeru
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. David Njeru has come out of that comparison in the side, and Mara Sugar have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
Boardroom20 Aug 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Mara Sugar
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Francisco González 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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Caleb Okoth 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. David Njeru did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. David Njeru 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Harun Muguna commits to Mara Sugar for another 3 years.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Words at Mara Sugar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Caleb Okoth 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.
8 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Mara Sugar are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings4 Jun 2029
Amos Muguna, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mara Sugar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
KCB held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Mara Sugar answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. David Njeru is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
SquadWords at Mara Sugar training over how hard people work
Boardroom$126.2K taken back off the Mara Sugar table
59 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.
“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 Mara Sugar, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Francisco González 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.
52 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mara Sugar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Mara Sugar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Njeru 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ibrahim Ochieng signs something — a contract at Mara Sugar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mara Sugar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mara Sugar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Lameck Omondi 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 Jan 2029
Words at Mara Sugar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Njeru 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 mood at Mara Sugar 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.
Timothy Ndayala 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.
In brief
SquadDavid Njeru falls out with a teammate over standards
SquadThomas Harun asks for a word with the manager
SquadPrice Omenda is not doing himself any favours
Lameck Omondi 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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ibrahim Ochieng signs something — a contract at Mara Sugar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdulhamid Kabiru trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Lameck Omondi 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lameck Omondi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
SquadWords at Mara Sugar training over how hard people work