It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heart of Lions this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Jul 2035
Words at Heart of Lions training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ishmael Addo 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 deal that would have taken Yaw Annor to Berekum Chelsea has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Heart of Lions with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heart of Lions this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Heart of Lions training over how hard people work
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heart of Lions this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 May 2035
Words at Heart of Lions training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eugene Amankwah 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
SquadKwesi Pong has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Squad7 May 2035
Ishmael Addo 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 best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Isaac Partey arrives at Heart of Lions with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
“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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Heart of Lions, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heart of Lions this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Heart of Lions training over how hard people work
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Heart of Lions this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Words at Heart of Lions training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ishmael Addo 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.
3‑6 to Hasaacas, 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yaw Annor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Heart of Lions the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Heart of Lions and Hasaacas in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Ishmael Addo 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.
Beaten 6 times, with 1 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
Ishmael Addo 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.
Squad19 Feb 2035
Words at Heart of Lions training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eugene Amankwah 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 words a physio says slowly. 19 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 Heart of Lions, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Ishmael Addo 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Words at Heart of Lions training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michael Noumon 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.
Daniel Atiemo is 19, and Heart of Lions have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.