New Edubiase United had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Hearts of Oak, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Bright Ethaghara 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AFC Leopards have kept their man, and New Edubiase United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. New Edubiase United will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation New Edubiase United are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sadiq Ali has just signed for New Edubiase United, and for once the answer mattered.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Medeama keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at New Edubiase United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nasarawa United have kept their man, and New Edubiase United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kamaldeen Ayew 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kamaldeen Mensah 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Michael Yeboah and New Edubiase United agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Michael Yeboah 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. New Edubiase United will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. New Edubiase United will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at New Edubiase United, another week without a signature from Kazeem Yekini.
New Edubiase United have made the call to Hearts of Oak. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.