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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hasaacas, another week without a signature from Rivio Ayemwenre.
“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 dugout1 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ernest Nuhu chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Hasaacas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Damilola 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 Hasaacas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Rivio Ayemwenre 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 Eurichano Setila was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eurichano Setila, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Ernest Nuhu to a room that had heard them before.
Squad15 Feb 2027
6 new faces, and Hasaacas 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.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
0‑3 to Wa All Stars, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
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.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Hasaacas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baba Waris 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Hasaacas will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
The dugoutHarrison Acquah is still being punished for one mistake
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Jayson Nettey
Rivio Ayemwenre 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Baba Waris 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.
At 19 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emmanuel Damilola and Hasaacas agree another 3 years.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ernest Nuhu after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Andy Ezekiel
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Andy Ezekiel has come out of that comparison in the side, and Hasaacas have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“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.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Rivio Ayemwenre 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 footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Emmanuel Damilola has, at Hasaacas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Baba Waris was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ernest Nuhu on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Hasaacas will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Hasaacas have gone and got theirs early.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
The dugoutYakubu Saeed asks for a word with the manager
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Francis Asamoah did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Francis Asamoah. 2‑0 against Inter Allies, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.22 — 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.
“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.
The dugout9 Nov 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.” Ernest Nuhu, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
4 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.
Rivio Ayemwenre 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Hasaacas can tell you which week it ends in.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout26 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 0‑3 Ernest Nuhu left the room before anybody could ask which.
5 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Hasaacas training over how hard people work
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 8.29 — 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 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
5 new faces, and Hasaacas 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.” Ernest Nuhu kept it short after the 4‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Chances created: 11. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andre Kyereh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Hasaacas man
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Osman Essien
At 19 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hasaacas, another week without a signature from Rivio Ayemwenre.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ernest Nuhu chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Hasaacas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baba Waris 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.
Asante Kotoko arrived with $1.1M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
37 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.
Ernest Essien has gone, the accounts have $1.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The offer from Berekum Chelsea for David 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.
Rivio Ayemwenre 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.
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Hasaacas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baba Waris 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 Hasaacas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Jeffrey Mensah has come up in conversations Hasaacas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Hasaacas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baba Waris 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.