The clubs have shaken hands with Liberty Professionals; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hasaacas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Stephen Kwakye has improved at 26, 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.
“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.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
Albert Inusah is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nobody at Hasaacas 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Hijazi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
21 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Isaac Nuhu 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Osman Inusah was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.27. 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. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
9 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.
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Isaac Nuhu will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Hasaacas escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Baba Kyereh did not need any: 7.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hasaacas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
David Atiemo 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Berekum Chelsea scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Hasaacas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amos Kyereh 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.
11 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.
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.
Marked 8.47 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amos Kyereh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Andrew Asamoah kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Francis Ofori 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
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.” Andrew Asamoah, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hasaacas can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hasaacas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Edmund Kudus has agreed terms with Ashanti Gold for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Stephen Kwakye 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Nuhu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Albert Inusah 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Kamaldeen Schlupp was one of the reasons people came, and $570.0K does not replace that by 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 Hasaacas 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 Nana Kwame was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting David Atiemo's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hasaacas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Abia Warriors had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from BA All Stars for Kamaldeen Schlupp 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 Hasaacas 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 Nana Kwame was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
David Atiemo is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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 Francis Asamoah is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Harrison Ayew signs something — a contract at Hasaacas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Ambitious players need ambitious projects. Draw your own conclusions.” Abbey Benson’s representative said it with a smile, and made sure everyone wrote it down.
Albert Inusah 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrew Asante was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Nobody at Hasaacas 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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Hasaacas would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Albert Inusah 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 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gladson Afful trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Francis Asamoah is on it.
New Edubiase United will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Wisdom Magbisa has pre-agreed a move to Hasaacas, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hasaacas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Albert Inusah 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hasaacas and WAFA in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
It finished 4‑2, and it was Albert Inusah’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Hasaacas.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Albert Inusah was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.72. 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hasaacas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” David Atiemo and Hasaacas agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Isaac Nuhu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.47. 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.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hasaacas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Isaac Nuhu 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hasaacas and WAFA in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. David Atiemo 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.