Hearts of Oak have gone to Orlando Pirates 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Bilal Yakubu has just signed for Hearts of Oak, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 22 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Hearts of Oak 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.
Thomas Appiah 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.
Hearts of Oak asked and Heart of Lions said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Hearts of Oak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anthony Uzodimma 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohammed Yahaya has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The offer from Berekum Chelsea for Isaac Frimpong 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hearts of Oak can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. BA All Stars have kept their man, and Hearts of Oak go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Asante Kotoko have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kwesi Asmah. The answer from Hearts of Oak has not changed — yet.
Hearts of Oak have made the call to RoPS. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad24 Aug 2026
6 new faces, and Hearts of Oak 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bernard Schlupp and Hearts of Oak agree another 3 years.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Hearts of Oak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephen Appiah Asare 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 went to Liberty Professionals 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: University of Pretoria keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer from Inter Allies for Bernard 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.
Hearts of Oak asked and Hasaacas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hearts of Oak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Isa Aji has, at Hearts of Oak, 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 Anthony Uzodimma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Hearts of Oak know which stage they are at.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Friday Ubong is living that version at Hearts of Oak, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liberty Professionals have kept their man, and Hearts of Oak go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Kelvin Osei Asibey 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kwadwo Schlupp has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gladson Amoah is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bernard Schlupp has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.