Marked for Peter Mainge
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces23 Aug 2032
Supporters organise against the Muranga Seal 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.
The dugout23 Aug 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Muranga Seal may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Aug 2032
Francis Gethoi 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.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AFC Leopards have kept their man, and Muranga Seal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match21 Aug 2032
No time for Tusker to settle
The goal that put Tusker ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Muranga Seal equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Player ratings23 Aug 2032
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.68 on the card, and the Muranga Seal support went home talking about one name.
Squad23 Aug 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jesse Mbugua and Muranga Seal agree another 3 years.
Match21 Aug 2032
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout23 Aug 2032
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Michael Walker after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Sep 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Joseph Waithira
134 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Muranga Seal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match13 Sep 2031
12 matches without a win for Muranga Seal
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Muranga Seal are no longer polite ones.
Squad15 Sep 2031
A fracture rules Timothy Onyango out for 43 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Muranga Seal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad15 Sep 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Muranga Seal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match13 Sep 2031
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market15 Sep 2031
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dennis Juma is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market15 Sep 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Patrick Mainge 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.
Market15 Sep 2031
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jesse Mainge 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.
Market15 Sep 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Moses Olunga 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Aug 2031
No end in sight to Muranga Seal's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Muranga Seal has to find a result from somewhere.
Market11 Aug 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout11 Aug 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Muranga Seal may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Francis Gethoi 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 targets11 Aug 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kakamega Homeboyz have kept their man, and Muranga Seal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market11 Aug 2031
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Moses Masika is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market11 Aug 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. John Kagere 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.
Market11 Aug 2031
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Clinton Manyama is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad11 Aug 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” George Owusu and Muranga Seal agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 May 2031
Francis Gethoi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings26 May 2031
Marked 7.43. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout26 May 2031
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Michael Walker chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Match24 May 2031
Point won or two lost for Muranga Seal?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Sofapaka? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Looking ahead26 May 2031
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against APS Bomet in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market26 May 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Sanele Radebe’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout26 May 2031
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Player ratings26 May 2031
Successful dribbles: 10. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout26 May 2031
The plan did not have a place for Peter Mainge
Nobody at Muranga Seal is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 May 2031
“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 Muranga Seal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 May 2031
Francis Gethoi 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.
Match17 May 2031
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Posta Rangers scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Player ratings19 May 2031
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.74 on the card, and the Muranga Seal support went home talking about one name.
Match17 May 2031
It needed John Njuguna to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Posta Rangers, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout19 May 2031
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout19 May 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Peter Mainge, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 May 2031
Senzo Hlophe 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.
Market19 May 2031
The name of Telvin Irungu keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Muranga Seal say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces7 Apr 2031
Anger at Muranga Seal spills outside the ground
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.
Market7 Apr 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Muranga Seal can pretend not to have heard.
Match5 Apr 2031
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.
Squad7 Apr 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Muranga Seal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Apr 2031
Kenya Police left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
Harun Mbugua gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
When it matters, Alex Juma plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market7 Apr 2031
The John Njuguna talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Muranga Seal know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Mar 2031
7 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.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Francis Gethoi 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.
Boardroom17 Mar 2031
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Muranga Seal now.
Match15 Mar 2031
0‑1 to Bidco United, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 Mar 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Anthony Ochieng commits to Muranga Seal for another 3 years.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Michael Walker left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad17 Mar 2031
A first team debut at 15 for Joseph Wanyama
Off the academy pitches and into a senior shirt, at 15. The parents in the stand will keep the programme, and so will he.
Market17 Mar 2031
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Telvin Irungu signs something — a contract at Muranga Seal or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
Samuel Muguna gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Samuel Muguna is on it.