The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 The request is on a desk at Medeama, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Medeama they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Kelvin Nkrumah 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Medeama training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 The request is on a desk at Medeama, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Medeama this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2038
Words at Medeama training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Salim Adams 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 name of Kwadwo Essien has come up in conversations Medeama were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Nobody at Medeama 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 The request is on a desk at Medeama, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Baba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Medeama the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Medeama this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Kermit Hlatshwayo reports back to Medeama with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad28 Jun 2038
Words at Medeama training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Salim Adams 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.
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.
Kelvin Nkrumah 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.
Squad21 Jun 2038
Words at Medeama training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Mantey 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 phone has started ringing about Kwadwo Essien again, and this time the name on the line is Wa All Stars. Medeama are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Medeama will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Medeama is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Medeama this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 May 2038
Words at Medeama training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Salim Adams 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Medeama know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 50 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Medeama will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Medeama is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Kelvin Nkrumah 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 71 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Medeama will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Medeama have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Medeama, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Medeama they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Medeama this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 99 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Medeama will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.32 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Medeama they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
Ibrohim Najimov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Medeama will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ibrohim Najimov provided it, and the 8.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.29 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 Medeama, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Medeama they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Medeama this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2038
Words at Medeama training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Salim Adams 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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2038
Kelvin Nkrumah was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.28. 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Medeama they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Medeama this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2038
Manuel Mantey 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.
The phone has started ringing about Kwadwo Essien again, and this time the name on the line is Berekum Chelsea. Medeama are listening politely and promising nothing.
Marked 8.26 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ibrohim Najimov provided it, and the 8.72 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 Medeama, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kelvin Nkrumah 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.
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Medeama lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ibrohim Najimov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Medeama the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Medeama this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad21 Sep 2037
Words at Medeama training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Mantey 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.
8.86. 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.
101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Medeama lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1‑4 to Hearts of Oak, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
Medeama moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Albert Schlupp, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Manuel Mantey 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.
12 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Albert Atiemo 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mohammed Inusah is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
122 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Medeama lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Medeama they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Medeama this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Inter Allies will make the call about Ibrohim Najimov this week. Medeama have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
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.