Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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 Thomas Ofori 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hasaacas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Emmanuel Asamoah provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A 3‑2 win over Bechem United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“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.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Felix Acquah was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.50. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jeffrey Atiemo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Hasaacas and Bechem United, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hasaacas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
At 22 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.
9 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Hasaacas will try again when the window opens; Medeama may not be selling by then.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade Malien have kept their man, and Hasaacas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Bernard Schlupp was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. 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.
45 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.
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
A brace, and Nana Paintsil takes the afternoon — 9.17
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nana Paintsil provided it, and the 9.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have shaken hands with Medeama; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 9 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at Hasaacas until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nana Paintsil is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The deal with Nasarawa United is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The name of Emmanuel Asamoah has come up in conversations Hasaacas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hasaacas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
66 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hasaacas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
74 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Abraham Nuhu had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hasaacas have lost him in all but the paperwork.
At 22 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.
The medical room confirms 60 days on the sidelines for Albert Kyereh, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Felix Acquah 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. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Hasaacas have made the call to Niger Tornadoes. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
The terracesThe Abraham Nuhu rumours reach the terraces
59 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.
The offer from Aduana Stars for Nana Paintsil 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.
Abraham 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.
The phone has started ringing about Albert Essien again, and this time the name on the line is BA All Stars. Hasaacas are listening politely and promising nothing.
Abia Warriors 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.
Hasaacas have made the call to Mamelodi Sundowns. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
96 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.
Add another name to the list: Bechem United have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Isaac Sulemana. The answer from Hasaacas has not changed — yet.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Hasaacas will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Amos Inusah 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 registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
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 Albert Essien is on it.
Nana Paintsil 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.
9 goals in 27 games at Heart of Lions — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hasaacas updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 16 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 74 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Abraham 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Paintsil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Hasaacas, and 2 appearances in 27 say he has earned the hearing.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Two goals and a mark of 9.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Paintsil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Tshepang Makara 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Hasaacas will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 11 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
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.
Abraham Nuhu 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Albert Appiah 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 easiest signature of my career.” Bernard Schlupp and Hasaacas agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Bernard Schlupp was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Kwame Atiemo
10 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bechem United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hasaacas is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
Match6 Feb 2027
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for Hasaacas. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Abraham Nuhu had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hasaacas have lost him in all but the paperwork.
6 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.
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.
Match9 Jan 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Hasaacas. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Position 2, 42 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
A brace, and Abraham Nuhu takes the afternoon — 9.01
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abraham Nuhu provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hasaacas and Aduana Stars in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Isaac Paintsil 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.
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.
7 goals in one match, Afriyie Inusah on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hasaacas and BA All Stars.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Albert Appiah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 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: 35. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Position 3, 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.
Mohammed Boateng 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.
“I watch every Hasaacas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Torpedo-BelAZ runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
6 goals in one match, Afriyie Inusah on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hasaacas and Ashanti Gold.
It finished 4‑2, and it was Afriyie Inusah’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Hasaacas.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Hasaacas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Afriyie Inusah 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 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.
Ashanti Gold next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Hasaacas have 4 straight wins of it.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Afriyie Inusah was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Hasaacas and Berekum Chelsea, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Isaac Paintsil 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.
8.22. 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.
5‑1, and Abraham Nuhu took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Hasaacas tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Abraham Nuhu takes the afternoon — 9.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abraham Nuhu provided it, and the 9.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Isaac Paintsil is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
6 goals in one match, Abraham Nuhu on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hasaacas and Bechem United.
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.
Marked 8.93 — 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.
Marked 8.15 — 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.66 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hasaacas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
6 goals in one match, Afriyie Inusah on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hasaacas and Great Olympics.
Two goals and a mark of 9.15 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hasaacas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Isaac Paintsil is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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 20 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Bernard Schlupp had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hasaacas and Aduana Stars in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Afriyie Inusah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hasaacas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hasaacas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Hasaacas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Hasaacas offered $140.0K; Aduana Stars said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. WAFA have kept their man, and Hasaacas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“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.
Isaac Paintsil and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Hasaacas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Afriyie Inusah 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 offer from Dynamo Douala for Nana Paintsil 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.
Isaac Paintsil 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.
Add another name to the list: MB Rouissat have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Bernard Schlupp. The answer from Hasaacas has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thomas Ofori was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Andrew Paintsil has his answer from Hasaacas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.