Marked for Gladson Asante
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
Gladson Asante damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match12 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Medeama
5 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Medeama
Yussif Mubarik and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch14 Dec 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Medeama, and 5 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Godknows Dzakpasu, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The form table has caught Felix Kyei
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
A promise honoured at Medeama
Something was said to Kingsley Braye and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
Gladson Asante damages knee ligaments — 26 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 26 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad7 Dec 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match5 Dec 2026
4 matches without a win for Medeama
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Medeama are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Medeama training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fatawu Sulemana 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Fatawu Sulemana
“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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Rashid Sumaila asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Half-satisfied: Amos Essien on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Medeama lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Thato Sibiya 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yussif Mubarik, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Medeama
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fatawu Sulemana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Chances created: 11. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Rich Sackey 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 Rich Sackey trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.