Marked for Patrick Asante
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Dec 2031
Joseph Boakye 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.
Match29 Nov 2031
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Liberty Professionals and Ashanti Gold in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match29 Nov 2031
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad1 Dec 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Schlupp was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings1 Dec 2031
Joseph Mensah was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. 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.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 2‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
Joseph Boakye has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Liberty Professionals 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.
Squad1 Dec 2031
Beaten 4 times: a bad day for Francis Ayew
3 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
“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
Squad7 Oct 2030
32 days out for Gladson Mensah after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Liberty Professionals will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad7 Oct 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Baba Schlupp
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Liberty Professionals lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match2 Oct 2030
A 1‑0 win over WAFA, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match2 Oct 2030
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Liberty Professionals scored in the 94th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
Patrick Asante could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.74
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.74, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
Musa Obafemi, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.21
A mark of 8.21 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.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad7 Oct 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Joseph Boakye and Liberty Professionals agree another 3 years.
Squad7 Oct 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Liberty Professionals this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Aug 2030
24 days out for Ernest Asante after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Liberty Professionals will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market19 Aug 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Liberty Professionals have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Baba Bukari is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Joseph Boakye 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 targets19 Aug 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rivers United have kept their man, and Liberty Professionals go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market19 Aug 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Albert Essien is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market19 Aug 2030
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Patrick Asante 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.
Market19 Aug 2030
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Edmund Asante 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.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vincent Klu Adjeu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.