Baba Afful

Right Forward - Heart of Lions
18 Sep 2038
Saturday
Process

Marked for Baba Afful

619 Edition

The Heart of Lions Herald

7 Jun 2038
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Heart of Lions spell it out for Afriyie Djiku

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Afriyie Djiku has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Market

New Edubiase United come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Heart of Lions did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Boardroom

Crisis meeting at Heart of Lions

The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.

Market

Harrison Baba hands in a written request

“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.

Squad

Baba Afful says Heart of Lions went back on their word

“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.

Squad

Kwesi Pong 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 Heart of Lions this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Lancine Bamba signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lancine Bamba and Heart of Lions agree another 2 years.

Market

WAFA join the queue for Baba Ofori

Add another name to the list: WAFA have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Baba Ofori. The answer from Heart of Lions has not changed — yet.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Seedorf 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

Back issues
575 Edition

The Heart of Lions Herald

3 Aug 2037
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Baba Mohammed damages knee ligaments — 69 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 69 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.

Boardroom

Afriyie Djiku has until the next board meeting

What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Heart of Lions can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.

Boardroom

The Heart of Lions board call everybody in

Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.

Market

BA All Stars come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Heart of Lions did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Tempers go at Heart of Lions

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.

Squad

Baba Afful stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Baba Afful and Heart of Lions agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Jonathan Boateng 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.

Boardroom

Heart of Lions pull $1.5M back off the table

The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.

Market

The George Osei question follows Heart of Lions around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with George Osei’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief