Caleb Mainge

Attacking Midfielder (L) - Posta Rangers
30 Jan 2036
Wednesday
Process

Marked for Caleb Mainge

494 Edition

The Posta Rangers Post

14 Jan 2036
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Nassim Soudani 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.

Squad

Brian Omurwa out for 34 days

The medical room confirms 34 days on the sidelines for Brian Omurwa, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

Squad

Vincent Wasambo has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Posta Rangers 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.

Squad

Caleb Mainge 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.

Market

The Veron Ombina talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Posta Rangers know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

Market

Still no signature from Nassim Soudani

7 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Posta Rangers could get for him.

In brief

Back issues
493 Edition

The Posta Rangers Post

7 Jan 2036
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the Posta Rangers boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Boardroom

Posta Rangers put Brian Ochieng on notice

The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.

Boardroom

The Posta Rangers board call everybody in

Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.

Market

Samuel Juma asks to leave Posta Rangers

“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.

Squad

Words at Posta Rangers training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nassim Soudani 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.

Squad

Veron Ombina has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Posta Rangers 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.

In brief

478 Edition

The Posta Rangers Post

24 Sep 2035
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Fredrick Odhiambo out for 51 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Posta Rangers will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Victor Amuka 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 Posta Rangers can pretend not to have heard.

Player ratings

Vincent Wasambo, 35, rolls back the years — 8.14

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.14 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Squad

Nassim Soudani 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Posta Rangers

Eric Ochieng 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.

Match

Posta Rangers share the spoils with Ulinzi Stars

A 1‑1 draw with Ulinzi Stars leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

Squad

Vincent Wasambo has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Posta Rangers 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.

Market

The Veron Ombina talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Posta Rangers know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Caleb Mainge

Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

In brief

475 Edition

The Posta Rangers Post

3 Sep 2035
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A fracture rules Fredrick Odhiambo out for 73 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Posta Rangers will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Boardroom

Posta Rangers spell it out for Brian Ochieng

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Brian Ochieng has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Boardroom

Crisis meeting at Posta Rangers

The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.

Market

Samuel Juma asks to leave Posta Rangers

“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.

Boardroom

The numbers do not look good at Posta Rangers

Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Veron Ombina

23 goals and a season average of 7.26 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

Duncan Juma keeps Posta Rangers in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Squad

Vincent Wasambo signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vincent Wasambo commits to Posta Rangers for another 2 years.

Match

Caleb Mainge’s goal not enough for Posta Rangers

Caleb Mainge scored, and precious little else went right: 3‑4 to Bidco United, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

In brief

474 Edition

The Posta Rangers Post

27 Aug 2035
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Fredrick Odhiambo out for 80 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Posta Rangers will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Caleb Mainge asks to leave Posta Rangers

“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.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Veron Ombina

22 goals and a season average of 7.25 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Player ratings

One of those days for Veron Ombina

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Squad

Words at Posta Rangers training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nassim Soudani 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.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Nassim Soudani

“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.

Match

Posta Rangers share the spoils with Kariobangi Sharks

A 2‑2 draw with Kariobangi Sharks leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

Market

The Veron Ombina question follows Posta Rangers around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Veron Ombina’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

Player ratings

Off the bench and decisive: Elvis Mukangula

The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Posta Rangers were going nowhere until he came on.

In brief

425 Edition

The Posta Rangers Post

18 Sep 2034
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at Posta Rangers

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Market

Duncan Nyakeya 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 Posta Rangers can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Fredrick Odhiambo keeps Posta Rangers in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

Only the photograph left for Ronwen Khune

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ronwen Khune will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Posta Rangers the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at Posta Rangers

Anthony Mainge 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Posta Rangers against Kenya Police

0‑2 to Kenya Police, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

When it matters, Jackson Dwang 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.

Squad

Kenneth Njeru 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.

Market

The clock does Anthony Miheso’s negotiating for him

4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Posta Rangers could ask drops and the wages Anthony Miheso can ask rise.

In brief

416 Edition

The Posta Rangers Post

17 Jul 2034
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

The mood at Posta Rangers 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.

Market

Duncan Nyakeya puts it in writing

“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 Posta Rangers, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Elvis Mukangula is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Posta Rangers is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Nassim Soudani 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.

Squad

Ronwen Khune 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 Posta Rangers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Jackson Dwang has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Posta Rangers 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.

Squad

Caleb Mainge 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.

Match

Point won or two lost for Posta Rangers?

Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against APS Bomet? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.

Market

The Veron Ombina talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Posta Rangers know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

In brief

400 Edition

The Posta Rangers Post

27 Mar 2034
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

Anger at Posta Rangers 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.

Squad

A fracture rules Vincent Wasambo out for 20 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Posta Rangers will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Victor Amuka asks to leave Posta Rangers

“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.

Match

Posta Rangers come up short against Bandari

Bandari left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

No hiding place for Anthony Mainge

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anthony Mainge, and the manager let it.

Squad

Words at Posta Rangers training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nassim Soudani 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Posta Rangers

Ronwen Khune 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.

Player ratings

Caleb Mainge runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

The Veron Ombina question follows Posta Rangers around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Veron Ombina’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief