Marked for Jonathan Asante
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 May 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Kouakou Kouadio
19 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 terraces3 May 2032
The mood at Hasaacas 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.
Boardroom3 May 2032
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad3 May 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hasaacas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad3 May 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Baba Annan and Hasaacas agree another 2 years.
Squad3 May 2032
Bernard Mensah 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
$2.4M taken back off the Hasaacas table
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Boardroom
The Hasaacas dressing room answers
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match6 Dec 2031
The wait goes on for Hasaacas
14 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.
Player ratings8 Dec 2031
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Bernard Mensah 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.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Kwadwo Kudus 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.
Player ratings8 Dec 2031
The afternoon belonged to Baba Annan
A mark of 7.98, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Bernard Schlupp 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.
Squad8 Dec 2031
“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.
Match6 Dec 2031
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. WAFA defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Player ratings8 Dec 2031
10 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Nov 2031
13 matches without a win for Hasaacas
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Hasaacas are no longer polite ones.
Match29 Nov 2031
Beaten 1‑4 by Hearts of Oak, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad1 Dec 2031
“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.
Market1 Dec 2031
“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.
Squad1 Dec 2031
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 Dec 2031
Words at Hasaacas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwadwo Kudus 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.
Boardroom1 Dec 2031
Nobody left the Hasaacas dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad1 Dec 2031
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.
Player ratings1 Dec 2031
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Hasaacas needed to.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 Nov 2031
The wait goes on for Hasaacas
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.
Market3 Nov 2031
“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.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Bernard Baba 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.
Match1 Nov 2031
3 matches without a goal for Hasaacas
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings3 Nov 2031
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.72 on the card, and the Hasaacas support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings3 Nov 2031
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Nov 2031
“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.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Francis Boakye 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.
Squad3 Nov 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Oct 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match11 Oct 2031
6 matches without a win for Hasaacas
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Hasaacas are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings13 Oct 2031
Up for the corner, and Abraham Afful delivers — 7.64
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Abraham Afful scored, was marked 7.64, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad13 Oct 2031
Bernard Mensah 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.
Match11 Oct 2031
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad13 Oct 2031
The manager makes an example of Jonathan Asante
“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.
In brief
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Squad
The manager has not finished forgetting Abdul Gyan's mistake
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Player ratings
Kwadwo Kudus runs at them all day
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Boardroom
Hasaacas keep producing them
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Oct 2031
Beaten 0‑4 by Liberty Professionals, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match1 Oct 2031
Hasaacas bow out of the cup
Aduana Stars go through and Hasaacas go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match4 Oct 2031
5 matches without a win for Hasaacas
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Hasaacas are no longer polite ones.
Market6 Oct 2031
“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.
Squad6 Oct 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andre Kudus commits to Hasaacas for another 2 years.
Squad6 Oct 2031
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.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Words at Hasaacas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwadwo Kudus 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.
Boardroom6 Oct 2031
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Market6 Oct 2031
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jonathan Asante has his answer from Hasaacas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Sep 2031
Bernard Baba 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.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Kwadwo Kudus 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.
Player ratings29 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match27 Sep 2031
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad29 Sep 2031
When it matters, Baba Annan 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.
Player ratings29 Sep 2031
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Hasaacas were going nowhere until he came on.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces22 Sep 2031
Anger at Hasaacas spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Bernard Baba 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.
Squad22 Sep 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abeiku Paintsil and Hasaacas agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match20 Sep 2031
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad22 Sep 2031
When it matters, Andre Kudus 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.
Player ratings22 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Aug 2031
Patrick Adjei has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hasaacas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Bernard Mensah 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.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Osayi Simon is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom21 Apr 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Hasaacas
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match21 Apr 2031
Hasaacas sink to position 14
17 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad21 Apr 2031
Bernard Baba 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Apr 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hasaacas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Bernard Baba 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.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Words at Hasaacas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwadwo Kudus 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.
In brief
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Squad
Baba Annan has become a man the manager trusts
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings24 Mar 2031
Successful dribbles: 44. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match22 Mar 2031
The wait goes on for Hasaacas
13 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.
Boardroom24 Mar 2031
Pressure builds in the Hasaacas boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match24 Mar 2031
Hasaacas sink to position 14
17 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Bernard Mensah 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.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Kwadwo Kudus 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.
Squad24 Mar 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Benjamin Abaidoo and Hasaacas agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Jonathan Asante 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.
Match22 Mar 2031
Hasaacas and WAFA cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. WAFA came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.