New Edubiase United will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Liberty Professionals were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
A 2‑0 win over BA All Stars, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings8 Jan 2035
A brace, and Owen Oseni takes the afternoon — 9.12
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Owen Oseni provided it, and the 9.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Player ratings8 Jan 2035
Edmund Afful, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.83
A mark of 7.83 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Liberty Professionals can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Asante Kotoko have kept their man, and Liberty Professionals go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 17 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings11 Dec 2034
A brace, and Owen Oseni takes the afternoon — 9.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Owen Oseni provided it, and the 9.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 The request is on a desk at Liberty Professionals, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrew Inusah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Liberty Professionals the goodbyes have quietly begun.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Great Olympics spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Marked 7.11 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Liberty Professionals can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Liberty Professionals they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Foster Sakitey and Liberty Professionals agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kelvin Osei Asibey and Liberty Professionals agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
0‑1 to Medeama, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Abdul Mensah is the division's best young player this month
At 18 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Liberty Professionals will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Isaac Wakaso after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
“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 Liberty Professionals, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrew Inusah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Liberty Professionals the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
The dugout16 Oct 2034
Andrew Inusah 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kelvin Osei Asibey’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Liberty Professionals needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Liberty Professionals will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Liberty Professionals can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Liberty Professionals they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jeffrey Gyan and Liberty Professionals agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
At 18 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Paul Agyei. 2‑0 against New Edubiase United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bernard Mensah 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gladson Adjei 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.
$4.0K on the table at Ashanti Gold. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
81 graduates, from a department now rated 7 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
“He needs to be playing at a level that matches him, and we are open to conversations.” Nobody says that by accident, and nobody at Liberty Professionals misheard it.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Andre Nuhu are not good
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Liberty Professionals can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Liberty Professionals have done the hard part with Asante Kotoko, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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 Zane Schreiber is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Wisdom Acquah trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have shaken hands with Bechem United; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 Liberty Professionals, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at WAFA is saying, and nobody at Liberty Professionals is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. WAFA have kept their man, and Liberty Professionals go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 Zane Schreiber is on it.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Wisdom Acquah may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout26 Jun 2034
The manager has not finished forgetting Andrew Inusah's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“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 Liberty Professionals, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 Jonathan Amoah is on it.