Marked for Moses Olunga
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces28 Jan 2036
The mood at Sofapaka 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.
Match28 Jan 2036
Sofapaka are in real trouble now
Position 16, 22 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market28 Jan 2036
Osman Bukari 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 Sofapaka can pretend not to have heard.
Market28 Jan 2036
Mara Sugar come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sofapaka did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Words at Sofapaka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Bukari 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.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2036
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.
Squad28 Jan 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Moses Onyango commits to Sofapaka for another 3 years.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2036
A loan move for Timothy Mbugua is in the works
Sofapaka have made the call to Gor Mahia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout28 Jan 2036
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces31 Dec 2035
Supporters organise against the Sofapaka board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match31 Dec 2035
Every point is an argument now for Sofapaka
Position 16 and 22 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad31 Dec 2035
21 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad31 Dec 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sofapaka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Dec 2035
A row about effort at Sofapaka
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Osman Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad31 Dec 2035
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Dec 2035
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad24 Dec 2035
Dennis Mukoye 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 Dec 2035
Words at Sofapaka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Bukari 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 dugout24 Dec 2035
Amos Okoth is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Market24 Dec 2035
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sofapaka know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market24 Dec 2035
Sofapaka have let the market know Abdelaziz Youssouf can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces26 Feb 2035
Supporters organise against the Sofapaka board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad26 Feb 2035
A falling-out at Sofapaka
Osman Bukari and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Words at Sofapaka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brooklyn Poggenpoel 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.
Match24 Feb 2035
The goals have deserted Sofapaka
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sofapaka can tell you which week it ends in.
Match24 Feb 2035
0‑1 to Nairobi United, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom26 Feb 2035
The borrowing at Sofapaka reaches $12.1M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $12.1M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
The dugout26 Feb 2035
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout26 Feb 2035
Somebody else is better right now than Timothy Omurwa
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Player ratings26 Feb 2035
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.