Marked for Patrick Mulee
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Mar 2036
102 days out for Brian Opondo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kakamega Homeboyz will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings3 Mar 2036
Two goals and a mark of 8.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings3 Mar 2036
A brace, and Josephat Lopaga takes the afternoon — 8.10
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Josephat Lopaga provided it, and the 8.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings3 Mar 2036
Martin Wanyama, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.09
A mark of 8.09 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market3 Mar 2036
“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.
Squad3 Mar 2036
David Odoyo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom3 Mar 2036
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Nov 2035
David Odoyo 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.
Market26 Nov 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Khaled Mounir Allaoui’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
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 Okereke is on it.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
The manager makes Harry Fisher a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Kakamega Homeboyz. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
Jonathan Allen 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.
Squad26 Nov 2035
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Nov 2035
David Odoyo 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.
Boardroom19 Nov 2035
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
Troy Savage 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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
10 new faces, and Kakamega Homeboyz are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
Jonathan Allen has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kakamega Homeboyz 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 dugout19 Nov 2035
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
Patrick Mulee knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Patrick Mulee trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Boardroom19 Nov 2035
108 graduates out of an academy now rated 7 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Nov 2035
David Odoyo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Khaled Mounir Allaoui, and the manager let it.
Boardroom12 Nov 2035
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom12 Nov 2035
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
Peter Thiong'o has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kakamega Homeboyz 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.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Brian Opondo goes off with his country
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Kakamega Homeboyz would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Squad12 Nov 2035
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Kakamega Homeboyz would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
The manager makes Harry Fisher a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Kakamega Homeboyz. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.