Marked for Jonathan Djiku
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Jul 2028
The name of Andrew Djiku has come up in conversations Hasaacas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market31 Jul 2028
“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 dugout31 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Francis Atiemo has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Hasaacas is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hasaacas have done the hard part with Ashanti Gold, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Dari Haruna in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Lawal Muritala 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 dugout31 Jul 2028
The manager makes an example of Abeiku Adjei
“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 dugout31 Jul 2028
Andre Atiemo gets picked when it counts
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 Andre Atiemo is on it.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
Olumide Henry knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Olumide Henry trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout7 Feb 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hasaacas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Francis Atiemo, 33, rolls back the years — 7.97
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 1 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A falling-out at Hasaacas
Nana Partey and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Hasaacas have gone to Wa All Stars with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Hasaacas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lawal Muritala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Asante Kotoko have kept their man, and Hasaacas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
The window shuts on the Bernard Waris deal
Hasaacas ran out of time with Hearts of Oak. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Match5 Feb 2028
Hasaacas caught on 90 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Liberty Professionals scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market20 Dec 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match18 Dec 2027
The run is over for Hasaacas
10 matches without defeat, and then Hearts of Oak. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Dari Haruna 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jonathan Djiku is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Hasaacas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lawal Muritala 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
0‑1 to Hearts of Oak, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. 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 dugout20 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Baba Mensah, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
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 0‑1 Jonathan Boakye left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
Andrew Bukari damages knee ligaments — 79 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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.
Match27 Feb 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Hasaacas did not have in the autumn.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Nana Partey in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Hasaacas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lawal Muritala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match27 Feb 2027
A point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Market1 Mar 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jonathan Djiku and Hasaacas agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Marked 7.65 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Hasaacas had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The team sheet said everything about Lawal Muritala
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Lawal Muritala.