Alex Imbusia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Mara Sugar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamohelo Hoala 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.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 93% of everything Mara Sugar earn
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kamohelo Hoala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Mara Sugar the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Alex Imbusia 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 makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Mara Sugar will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
In brief
The dugoutBenard Okinyi knocks on the manager's door
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mara Sugar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kamohelo Hoala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Mara Sugar will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mara Sugar, another week without a signature from Kamohelo Hoala.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mara Sugar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Lwandile Khawuta 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.
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried 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 Mara Sugar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Comfort Ngubo and Mara Sugar agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Mara Sugar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joseph Odhiambo 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Mara Sugar are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Pentjie Zulu 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ebenezer Adukwaw was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mara Sugar, another week without a signature from Lwandile Khawuta.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mara Sugar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Pentjie Zulu 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Mara Sugar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ebenezer Adukwaw 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mara Sugar 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.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michael Isabwa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Nobody at Mara Sugar is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Pentjie Zulu 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.
Something was said to Joseph Odhiambo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thomas Harun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Oct 2026
5 new faces, and Mara Sugar 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Benard Okinyi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Mara Sugar needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
The dugoutThomas Harun knocks on the manager’s door
Pentjie Zulu 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.
Michael Isabwa scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Gor Mahia, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
134% of the income goes out in wages at Mara Sugar
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michael Isabwa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Mara Sugar know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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 1‑2 Duncan Kagere left the room before anybody could ask which.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Alex Imbusia 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.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Gor Mahia in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Alex Imbusia 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.
2-0, and a corner of somebody else’s ground that outsang the rest of it. Those coaches leave before dawn and nobody outside them mentions it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Duncan Kagere, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Mara Sugar have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
7 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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.
Something was said to Vincent Mulama and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Mara Sugar will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tusker have kept their man, and Mara Sugar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Michael Isabwa has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Silas Oningo
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
6 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 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Mara Sugar can tell you which week it ends in.
Everything agreed with Gor Mahia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Alex Imbusia 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Duncan Kagere after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Posta Rangers? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Michael Isabwa
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Mara Sugar have done the hard part with Posta Rangers, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Alex Imbusia 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.
Mara Sugar asked and AFC Leopards said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michael Isabwa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Everything agreed with Kenya Police, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mara Sugar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Mara Sugar asked and Bandari said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Alex Imbusia 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Victor Mbugua 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. Francis Mukangula 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. John Okoth is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Mara Sugar have made the call to Bandari. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Kenya Police have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
In brief
Player ratingsAlex Imbusia beats them one at a time
Alex Imbusia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Mara Sugar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michael Isabwa 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Ibrahim Ochieng’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Mara Sugar are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Joseph Odhiambo is in the works