43 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ernest Djiku will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hasaacas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Patrick Gyan 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.
Add another name to the list: New Edubiase United have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Afriyie Annan. The answer from Hasaacas has not changed — yet.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Kwame Bukari 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 words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Hasaacas, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hasaacas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
101 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hasaacas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Patrick Gyan 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
SquadOsman Afful falls out with a teammate over standards
129 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ernest Djiku will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hasaacas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Osman Boakye 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.
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Kwame Bukari 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.
Edmund Ofori damages knee ligaments — 158 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 158 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.
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.
Patrick Gyan 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Nana Ofori 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.
A performance of 8.26 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Kwame Bukari 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 words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohammed Essien provided it, and the 9.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Osman Boakye 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Nana Ofori 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.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Mohammed Essien’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Hasaacas.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Osman Afful 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.
66 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
7 goals in one match, Mohammed Essien on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hasaacas and BA All Stars.
94 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.
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.
9 goals and a season average of 7.29 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Hasaacas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwame Bukari 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 121 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
1‑4 to WAFA, 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.
Wasiu Falolu 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 Nov 2027
Words at Inter Allies training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Egeonu 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.
Inter Allies will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Hasaacas were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.42 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hasaacas and Inter Allies in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Hasaacas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Osman Afful 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Hasaacas, and 1 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Isaac Ayew did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Patrick Gyan 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.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Osman Afful. 2‑1 against Wa All Stars, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 17 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Osman Afful 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Osman Boakye 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.
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 Ernest Djiku has come up in conversations Hasaacas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Hasaacas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwame Bukari 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 from New Edubiase United for Fabrício Kanté 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inter Allies this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Inter Allies training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Egeonu 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.
Osman Boakye 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 phone has started ringing about Andre Partey again, and this time the name on the line is Inter Allies. Hasaacas are listening politely and promising nothing.
In brief
SquadKwame Bukari falls out with a teammate over standards