Hearts' remarkable renaissance under Samuel Boadu could help ensure 12-year title wait is ended

Prior to the Serbian tactician saying his final goodbyes, it came to light he had squabbled with the club's captain, Fatawu Mohamed, over favouritism in team selections. Had fought the board over his supposedly meagre monthly wages, and had apparently signed a pre-contract with a club somewhere in Tanzania, all the while patiently occupying the coaching role at Hearts and awaiting his final switch elsewhere. And so when results came in short, tension in the camp of the Phobians only sharply aggravated to a new high.

It could be sensed that while enmity and rift between Kosta Papic and the board heightened by degrees each passing day, so too did his hostile relationship with some players. And so it got to a point where the connection between the Serbian and the Accra-based club got broken beyond repair. A fractured marriage yearning for a divorce with immediacy.

And in the days to come, Kosta Papic tendered in his resignation alongside goalkeeper's trainer Ben Owu. In the end, the 78 days of gradually bonding with the players, of brainstorming tactics and formations, of drilling and oiling the team to hit the ground running, all reduced to nothing, all thrown out the window.

With a new dawn came Samuel Boadu, after Samuel Nii Noi had briefly taken charge as interim coach. This, in essence, was the birth of new chapters in the brazen and daring life of one of Ghana's most illustrious clubs. Fate, once again, began to warmly smile at Hearts.

In his debut game Samuel Boadu oversaw his side obliterate WAFA 4-0 at the Accra Sports Stadium to usher in a thrilling era anew. And throughout the period since, Hearts have never looked back. There's a strong, unwavering optimism beginning to form that just as 2009 delivered Hearts of Oak their 19th league title, so too will this season.

A fleeting peek at results and stats throws Samuel Boadu's team in a good light. Just as results have duly reflected and mirrored a gradual shift in culture developing at this mega-club, so too have their stirring style of play and proactive nature in games. Consider, for example, the breathless game between Great Olympics and Hearts of Oak a few weeks back. An intoxicating matchup nominated by many across the country as the best fixture of the season. The sort of game where every passing minute offered its own compelling drama, its own jaw-dropping moments.

Hearts are not just grinding out results and afterwards heaving a deep sigh of relief, instead they are essentially hammering their opponents and doing so authoritatively and with a touch of cruelty, too. After 16 Premier League fixtures played under the leadership of Samuel Boadu, 11 have been won, with 3 draws and 2 losses. Surprisingly, what makes the Phobian’s recent impressive results so profound and stupefying has been their unrelenting ability and sheer graft to have prevailed 11 times while only conceding a single goal in that long stretch.

Unlike the first-half of the season where Hearts leaked 14 goals in 16 fixtures, only 7 have been conceded in the league ever since the former Medeama coach was installed to briskly change the destiny and fortunes of this ailing club. To his credit, the 35-year-old manager has done that to great effect.

It is for this reason many Hearts supporters have found their full voices once more especially after the Super Clash triumph. With a coach likened to Manchester City's Pep Guardiola, it comes as little surprise Samuel Boadu’s men are playing the way they do after several years in the wilderness saw them relinquish their crown as the paragon of excellence in the league to their arch-rivals, Asante Kotoko.

Now, the aim would be to clinch the league, and if possible the FA cup as well, to restore their already severely battered reputation: to end a 12-year wait for a major piece of silverware and grin broadly once more. In a way, twelve harrowing years have felt like eternity, and even back then in 2009, it was Hearts and Kotoko who closely fought for the title till its final day, with the Phobians slightly edging out the Porcupine Warriors by three slim points to be crowned champions. Now, the Phobians sit at the summit of the league with three points separating them from Kotoko.

With just two fixtures remaining, Hearts of Oak supporters will be in their full voices once more. For as belief continues to grow within their hearts, as hope that a 12-year title wait could be broken swells, these supporters scattered across the nation in all sixteen regions will converge in body and soul, and massively rally behind their destined heroes as the season nears its own endgame.

Bright Antwi

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