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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thabo Molea will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BA All Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about BA All Stars and Aduana Stars in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
“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 The request is on a desk at BA All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Eric Ofori-Antwi and BA All Stars agree another 1 years.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hearts of Oak have kept their man, and BA All Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Kwame Addo 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Heart of Lions waiting with a shirt. Nobody at BA All Stars is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Abeiku Acquah did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Abdul Ayew 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.
BA All Stars asked and Great Olympics said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
SquadKwame Addo falls out with a teammate over standards
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what BA All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kwadwo Kyereh and BA All Stars agree another 4 years.
Two goals and a mark of 9.80 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Edwin Buliba 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.
Marked 8.35 — 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.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abeiku Asamoah 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.
A point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwame Addo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 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 dugout28 Oct 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at BA All Stars 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.
15 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Wa All Stars were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. BA All Stars rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Wa All Stars had no answer to any of it.
Player ratings21 Oct 2030
A brace, and Abdul Ayew takes the afternoon — 9.19
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abdul Ayew provided it, and the 9.19 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 BA All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abdul Ayew. 4‑3 against Wa All Stars, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwame Addo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 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.
12 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about BA All Stars and Medeama in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwame Addo 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.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑4 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
10 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.
“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 BA All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Abeiku Acquah did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A performance of 9.51 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Thabo Molea has improved at 30, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwame Addo 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Abeiku Acquah has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Kamaldeen Ayew clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 14 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Joseph Baba is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniel Inusah is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kwadwo Addo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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 BA All Stars, 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 BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 30 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwame Addo 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.
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 Abdul Ayew is on it.
Supporters organise against the BA All Stars board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom12 Aug 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at BA All Stars
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Razak Abdullah 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.
Amos Partey 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at BA All Stars can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Kwame Addo 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Andre Schlupp has his answer from BA All Stars; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. BA All Stars have done the hard part with Medeama, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwame Addo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Edwin Buliba 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.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. BA All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
$20.0K settles it between the clubs for Jayson Nettey
WAFA have accepted the money. What BA All Stars do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Supporters organise against the BA All Stars board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. BA All Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom15 Jul 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at BA All Stars
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Great Olympics have kept their man, and BA All Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwame Addo 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 easiest signature of my career.” Charlie Finney and BA All Stars agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
BA All Stars have made the call to Great Olympics. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.