Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Isaac Mintah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Asante Kotoko the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
23 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Manuel Baldé 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Asante Kwadwo has improved at 24, 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. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Peter Amidu 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Albert Amoah 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Asante Kotoko training over how hard people work
The offer from Besiktas for Peter Amidu Acquah was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Benjamin Tsivanyo is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Emmanuel Antwi has improved at 28, 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Asante Kotoko training over how hard people work
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Asante Kotoko they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Andrews Ntim has improved at 28, 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.
The phone has started ringing about Johnson Owusu again, and this time the name on the line is Ashanti Gold. Asante Kotoko are listening politely and promising nothing.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bonginkosi Dlamini and Asante Kotoko agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
In brief
SquadManuel Baldé falls out with a teammate over standards
BoardroomAsante Kotoko release $3.2M for the manager
The offer from Hasaacas for Kamogelo Malefo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadManuel Baldé falls out with a teammate over standards
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Asante Kotoko will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Isaac Mintah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Asante Kotoko the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lord Hilary Adabo and Asante Kotoko agree another 4 years.
Joseph Ablorh 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 offer from Berekum Chelsea for Kamogelo Malefo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Asante Kotoko 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 Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Manuel Baldé 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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Asante Kotoko may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Asante Kotoko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Baldé 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.
Joseph Ablorh 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.
Nobody at Asante Kotoko 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 Asante Kotoko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Isaac Mintah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Asante Kotoko the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Albert Amoah 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Asante Kotoko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Baldé 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 Kamogelo Malefo again, and this time the name on the line is Hasaacas. Asante Kotoko are listening politely and promising nothing.
Position 2, 62 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 May 2028
Manuel Baldé 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, terms agreed, medical booked. Isaac Mintah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Asante Kotoko the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Fawaaz Basadien 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Asante Kotoko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Baldé 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Asante Kotoko will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Asante Kotoko, 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 Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Manuel Baldé 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 125 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fawaaz Basadien 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.
15 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Asante Kotoko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Baldé 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 ratings27 Mar 2028
Emmanuel Antwi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.18. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 132 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Getting past Manuel Baldé has become the hardest job in the division
14 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
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 crowd waited for a goal that never came. Liberty Professionals defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Atta Derrick Afriyie may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Asante Kotoko will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 3, 43 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Cletus Kelechi is living that version at Asante Kotoko, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Asante Kotoko can pretend not to have heard.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Joseph Ablorh is a Asante Kotoko player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The shirt still fits. Joseph Amoah is back at Asante Kotoko, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Atta Derrick Afriyie is living that version at Asante Kotoko, and it tends to show in the first month.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Godfred Boakye has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Asante Kotoko have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
In brief
SquadManuel Baldé falls out with a teammate over standards
Position 3, 33 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Musa Hamzata 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Asante Kotoko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Antwi 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Asante Kotoko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadManuel Baldé falls out with a teammate over standards
Albert Amoah 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Asante Kotoko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Baldé 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.
Position 1, 30 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Albert Amoah 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Asante Kotoko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Baldé 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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Asante Kotoko did not have in the autumn.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Manuel Baldé 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.
Morifing Donzo 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.
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.
“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 Asante Kotoko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Asante Kotoko have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Manuel Baldé 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Andrews Ntim
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Andrews Ntim has come out of that comparison in the side, and Asante Kotoko have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Albert Amoah 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.
Defensive actions: 22. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Asante Kotoko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Baldé 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Thomas Amang. 2‑0 against Medeama, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Thomas Amang was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.70. 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.
Words at Asante Kotoko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Baldé 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.
Musa Hamzata 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 8.74 — 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.
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.
New Edubiase United are out and Asante Kotoko go through, 2‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
A brace, and Albert Amoah takes the afternoon — 8.82
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Albert Amoah provided it, and the 8.82 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Benjamin Tsivanyo did not need any: 8.09, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Musa Hamzata and Asante Kotoko agree another 3 years.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Manuel Baldé 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Benjamin Tsivanyo 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Thomas Amang has improved at 29, 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The terraces20 Sep 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 28 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Hubert Gyau is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Manuel Baldé has improved at 25, 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. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Asante Kotoko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Baldé 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.
10 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Albert Amoah will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Asante Kotoko escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 5.78. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Benjamin Tsivanyo is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Thomas Amang has improved at 29, 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.
In brief
SquadManuel Baldé falls out with a teammate over standards
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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
SquadManuel Baldé has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The fee is $330.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Medeama drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Albert Amoah 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Asante Kotoko training over how hard people work
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Asante Kotoko will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Manuel Baldé 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.
Kwame Opoku 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Asante Kotoko 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.” Asante Kotoko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Kutlwano Letlhaku 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.
In brief
SquadFacundo Bailó falls out with a teammate over standards
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
23 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Thomas Amang 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Ashanti Gold tried to reorganise, Asante Kotoko did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Marked 8.42 — 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 115 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 5.63. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Khulumani Ndamane provided it, and the 9.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A mark of 7.68 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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 Asante Kotoko, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kutlwano Letlhaku 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Kutlwano Letlhaku 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Asante Kotoko and Hasaacas in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Marked 9.31 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Asante Kotoko will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Asante Kotoko, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Wa All Stars for Joseph Amoah was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Thomas Amang 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.” Joseph Ablorh has his answer from Asante Kotoko; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Manuel Baldé 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Manuel Baldé 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Asante Kotoko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Thomas Amang 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.
Kutlwano Letlhaku 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Asante Kotoko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Baldé 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.
“I did not go to Inter Allies to sit and watch. I want to come back to Asante Kotoko and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
Squad26 Oct 2026
5 new faces, and Asante Kotoko 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.