Marked for Kermit Ngcobo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Jun 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 Heart of Lions can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
The deal with Hasaacas 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.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Heart of Lions have gone to Asante Kotoko 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.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
No deal for Zeke May at that price
Heart of Lions offered $300.0K; Ashanti Gold 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Michael Ephson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Abeiku Waris 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 dugout26 Jun 2028
Michael Noumon has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Heart of Lions 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.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
The manager makes an example of Kermit Ngcobo
“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 dugout26 Jun 2028
George Amonoo 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 George Amonoo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Jun 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 Heart of Lions can pretend not to have heard.
Market12 Jun 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Heart of Lions have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
$290.0K on the table at Asante Kotoko. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
The offer went to New Edubiase United this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Michael Ephson 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Lawrence Osei for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Heart of Lions will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
“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.
Market12 Jun 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
Michael Ephson 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 Michael Ephson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout15 May 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad15 May 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kwesi Pong and Heart of Lions agree another 4 years.
Squad15 May 2028
Michael Ephson 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abeiku Waris was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad15 May 2028
Kwesi Pong is doing the arithmetic
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Heart of Lions says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
Market15 May 2028
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Heart of Lions money.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout20 Mar 2028
George Amonoo: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heart of Lions have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
A brace, and Martin Karikari takes the afternoon — 7.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Martin Karikari provided it, and the 7.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Michael Ephson 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.
Match18 Mar 2028
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Sharif Shuaib
“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 dugout20 Mar 2028
No place for Lawrence Osei on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Heart of Lions pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Squad20 Mar 2028
7 new faces, and Heart of Lions 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 dugout20 Mar 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad20 Mar 2028
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. Heart of Lions lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Feb 2028
Position 15, 18 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match12 Feb 2028
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Heart of Lions are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Two goals and a mark of 7.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market14 Feb 2028
Only the photograph left for Michael Noumon
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michael Noumon will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Heart of Lions the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad14 Feb 2028
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
Kermit Ngcobo: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heart of Lions have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
$5.0K was the most the club would pay and Wa All Stars were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Heart of Lions training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abeiku 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.
Match12 Feb 2028
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Martin Karikari had Heart of Lions level again within 4 minutes, and Bechem United never got to play with a lead at all.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Dec 2027
Position 14, 13 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Marked 7.79 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
Kermit Ngcobo: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heart of Lions have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Michael Ephson 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 terraces20 Dec 2027
He is 23 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Michael Noumon’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Heart of Lions.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Marked 8.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Heart of Lions.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jeffrey Kudus on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces6 Dec 2027
Supporters organise against the Heart of Lions board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market6 Dec 2027
Kelvin Asenso has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Heart of Lions they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
Sheriff Alabani: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Heart of Lions have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad6 Dec 2027
At 21 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Kwesi Pong 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.
Match4 Dec 2027
Three points for Heart of Lions, 2‑1 the final word against Hasaacas in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces6 Dec 2027
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.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
George Osei gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 Nov 2027
Every point is an argument now for Heart of Lions
Position 16 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
George Amonoo 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.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Kwesi Pong beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Market22 Nov 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Heart of Lions, another week without a signature from George Osei.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
George Amonoo dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Lawrence Osei asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Nov 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdou Diene and Heart of Lions agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“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 dugout15 Nov 2027
Lawrence Osei 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 Lawrence Osei trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market15 Nov 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Jayson Nettey has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Heart of Lions.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
When it matters, Denis Hutor plays
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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Oct 2027
A fracture rules Kingsley Braye out for 27 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Heart of Lions will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Michael Ephson 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 dugout25 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kwesi Pong, and the manager let it.
Match23 Oct 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Michael Ephson. 1‑0 against Bechem United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.71 on the card, and the Heart of Lions support went home talking about one name.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Jeffrey Kudus could afford to be generous.
Market25 Oct 2027
Denis Hutor is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Heart of Lions has been clear about where Denis Hutor stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
George Amonoo 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.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
A mark of 4.70 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces11 Oct 2027
The mood at Heart of Lions has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A fracture rules Kingsley Braye out for 42 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Heart of Lions will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market11 Oct 2027
Kelvin Asenso has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Heart of Lions they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Michael Ephson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kermit Ngcobo commits to Heart of Lions for another 3 years.
Market11 Oct 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Anthony Owusu has his answer from Heart of Lions; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Michael Noumon
“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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Too much change too quickly at Heart of Lions
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.