Marked for Teboho Williams
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jan 2033
67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nairobi United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market17 Jan 2033
“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 The request is on a desk at Nairobi United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2033
Everything agreed with Gor Mahia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad17 Jan 2033
He is 21, he is averaging 7.08, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad17 Jan 2033
Gad Mathews 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 Nairobi United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout17 Jan 2033
“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.
Squad17 Jan 2033
32 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market17 Jan 2033
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout17 Jan 2033
Charles Agyemang has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Nairobi United 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Jul 2032
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nairobi United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match7 Jul 2032
0‑3 against Gor Mahia, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Match10 Jul 2032
APS Bomet will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Nairobi United were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings12 Jul 2032
Michael Ouma, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 9.61
A mark of 9.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad12 Jul 2032
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
The terraces12 Jul 2032
0-3. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Market12 Jul 2032
“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 Nairobi United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market12 Jul 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nairobi United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The terraces12 Jul 2032
At 18 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Jul 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Teboho Williams
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nairobi United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match3 Jul 2032
Sofapaka will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Nairobi United were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings5 Jul 2032
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings5 Jul 2032
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.22, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market5 Jul 2032
“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 Nairobi United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jul 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ovella Ochieng and Nairobi United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jul 2032
Wasi Ngala 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2032
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Jun 2032
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nairobi United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market28 Jun 2032
“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 Nairobi United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2032
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nairobi United have done the hard part with Gor Mahia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Wasi Ngala and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gor Mahia have kept their man, and Nairobi United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings28 Jun 2032
Wasi Ngala was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match26 Jun 2032
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Nairobi United had all but put away. Posta Rangers will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Edward Ledlum 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Jun 2032
Kakamega Homeboyz will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Nairobi United were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad21 Jun 2032
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nairobi United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings21 Jun 2032
Two goals and a mark of 8.67 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings21 Jun 2032
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 7.96, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings21 Jun 2032
No sign of nerves from Michael Ouma at 18 — 7.88
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Michael Ouma did not need any: 7.88, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings21 Jun 2032
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.06, and nobody on the pitch better.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2032
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nairobi United have done the hard part with Gor Mahia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match19 Jun 2032
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Nairobi United and Kakamega Homeboyz, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2032
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Jun 2032
43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nairobi United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings14 Jun 2032
Martin Mulee, 19, steals the show — 8.46
Marked 8.46 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout14 Jun 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Nairobi United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market14 Jun 2032
Michael Njeru 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 Nairobi United can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Jun 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nairobi United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2032
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nairobi United have done the hard part with Gor Mahia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match12 Jun 2032
A 3‑1 win over Mathare United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2032
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.
Squad14 Jun 2032
Gad Mathews 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 Nairobi United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.