Marked for Patrick Manyama
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Aug 2036
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.
Market25 Aug 2036
“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 The request is on a desk at Muranga Seal, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout25 Aug 2036
Harun Kahata: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Muranga Seal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2036
$12.0K settles it between the clubs for Samuel Okereke
Kakamega Homeboyz have accepted the money. What Muranga Seal do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Match23 Aug 2036
4 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.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2036
Muranga Seal asked and Tusker said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings25 Aug 2036
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match23 Aug 2036
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout25 Aug 2036
Half-satisfied: Interim Coach on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Apr 2036
Chastening afternoon for Muranga Seal
A 1‑4 beating by Kenya Police was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market7 Apr 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.
Boardroom7 Apr 2036
Nobody left the Muranga Seal dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad7 Apr 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Patrick Manyama commits to Muranga Seal for another 3 years.
The dugout7 Apr 2036
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad7 Apr 2036
Brian Chemelil named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Brian Chemelil is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Apr 2036
“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.
Market7 Apr 2036
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Muranga Seal, another week without a signature from Jesse Manyama.
Squad7 Apr 2036
2 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Feb 2036
Beaten 0‑5 by Shabana, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad18 Feb 2036
9 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.
Match16 Feb 2036
No end in sight to Muranga Seal's wait for a win
4 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.
The dugout18 Feb 2036
“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.
Transfer targets18 Feb 2036
The window shuts on the Nicholas Okoth deal
Muranga Seal ran out of time with Gor Mahia. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Boardroom18 Feb 2036
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout18 Feb 2036
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑5 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The terraces18 Feb 2036
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Every debut is a small story about the future: Patrick Manyama, 17 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Oct 2035
18 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom8 Oct 2035
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Muranga Seal can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match8 Oct 2035
18 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Boardroom8 Oct 2035
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.
Player ratings8 Oct 2035
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match6 Oct 2035
0‑1 to APS Bomet, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad8 Oct 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Patrick Manyama commits to Muranga Seal for another 3 years.
The dugout8 Oct 2035
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout8 Oct 2035
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.