Why Asamoah Gyan left sunderland

For $200 000 a week, Asamoah deemed it fit to leave the Stadium of Light and head towards the land of the The Spring.

The adjectives to describe have been flowingly negative from Sunderland fans – who accepted him wholeheartedly only a year before – to neutrals and so-called purists who see this as another nail in the casket of the beautiful game.

Gyan’s move to Al Ain (literally meaning ‘the spring’) was surprising, to say the least. But for his boss Steve Bruce, it was disappointing.

Last Saturday, Gyan woke up in the late morning to the news that the man who had discovered him at 13 years had died. Alhaji Sly Tetteh had died while playing football and exercising. Gyan described Sly as his brother, father and friend.

The same man had discovered Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari, John Pantsil and Derek Boateng, among hundreds of other players worldwide. Call him the Ghanaian Arsene Wenger. At Sly’s funeral, Gyan was inconsolable. “We had so many plans and dreams. I wanted him to see me make something meaningful of the things he taught me. Life is too short.”

MAKING HIS MIND

He returned to the Ghana team hotel in his white BMW X6 to pack. His elder brother, Baffour, also a footballer, was waiting for him. They spoke about ‘the situation’ at hand. Gyan had made up his mind. He was heading to the Emirates.

On his way out, SuperSport.com caught with him and asked if, finally, if he was leaving Sunderland for Turkey. He was getting upset, for we had asked him twice already in the previous three days. This time, we told him it had been reported by the BBC. “Are they liars too?” he had asked.

He had made my day. When I got home, I tweeted exactly as he had said to the info-hungry Sunderland fans following me on Twitter. I assured them, confidently, that Gyan was going nowhere. A day before, I had asked Gyan about the increasing rumours of him moving to Fenerbahce. “It would be ungrateful of me to do that to Sunderland, who have been so good to me.”

I had dutifully tweeted that as well. So what had happened in 24 hours? Actually, it was a culmination of Gyan’s feelings since the start of the year.

The player had moved from Rennes to Sunderland on a club record 13 million pounds on transfer deadline day last summer. Steve Bruce had told the media that he had “been looking at him [Gyan] for two years and tried to sign him last summer [2009] but it was not possible”. The coach had acknowledged also that it was “a hell of a lot of money in today's climate but the owner understood the necessity and we've managed to bring in another top class striker.” There was a buzz around the Stadium of Light.

Hope and uncertainty

At the time, Gyan had the reliable Darren Bent as a strike partner and they were expected to fire the Wearside team into the top eight of the Premier League, at least.

And then in January Bent left for Aston Villa, insisting it was for “footballing reasons” and not money. Gyan started feeling lonely upfront, netting just twice between Bent’s departure and Ghana’s game with England.

According to Bruce, who spoke to the media after today’s defeat to Chelsea, this game was crucial in Gyan’s attitudinal calendar. "Since that game at Wembley, all the parasites, as I call them, hover around. People are in his ear constantly trying to engineer a deal for him. Certainly since the England game, when he played at Wembley so well on the night, something has been troubling him.”

The Cats boss is an experienced player and coach, and he could read the signs when he saw them. He was right. In March, Gyan and his agent had spoken about a potential salary raise and they had forwarded the request to the club. Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn had refused, especially because he was not even one year into his deal, and he worried what signals it would send to other players.

The lad was not happy and it started showing. "It's very difficult, the constant speculation, no matter what you try to quash or quell, and the people around him, the people who want to make a fast buck, and it affects him in the end,” Bruce said in today’s media interviews. “He was going from Real Madrid to Bayern Munich to Valencia to Atletico Madrid."

And Galatasaray and Fenerbahce and Trabzonspor. But even more poignant were the sentiments the player expressed while in Ghana in May. “Sunderland’s team spirit that I know is not the same. Things are not organised. I’m not too happy there. ”

The club had been in a mini-crisis. Between February 12 and the end of the season, the Cats had won only three out of 12 games, a situation that that had seen morale drop to dangerous levels.

With Muntari looking like he would not be stay at Wearside the end of the season, John Mensah constantly crocked and Anton Ferdinand, Gyan’s dressing room chum possibly on his way out, some called for Bruce’s head. Asamoah just wanted out.

Heading East

On 7th June, Ghana played South Korea in the Far East. At about the same time, the UAE club Al Ain had decided at a board meeting around their election period that they needed to appease fans with another big signing before the season starts on October 15 this year.

Someone young and fresh, not the regular retirees who patrolled the Emirati fields for huge sums. Eto’o was in the middle of his deal talks with Anzhi and wanted a team capable of getting into the Champions League in the next year. Drogba did not want to leave Chelsea at all. Aguero was not interested.

The unsettled Gyan was in the sub-region and moves were made. He initially rebuffed the offer, as the Turkish deals looked more promising in terms of money and potential Champions League football. When Fenerbahce were looking like making headway, the match-fixing allegations surfaced. Gyan’s people pulled out, especially when top players like Mamadou Niang started leaving the club.

Over the course of the following month Al Ain took moved very quickly and quietly. While the rest of us were embroiled of the “Will he go to Turkey?” circus, the decoy allowed Gyan’s reps and the UAE club to settle things.

Betrayal or a necessary evil?

But there was one party missing – Steve Bruce. He was completely in the dark about it all. It’s the reason he said today that sometimes football leaves a sour taste in the mouth. He had taken a personal liking to Gyan and was worried about his poor showing in the opening games of the season thus far. "I had a conversation with him 48 hours ago and he shook my hand and assured me he wanted to stay at Sunderland," the coach said today.

"Within a few hours things changed. It's disappointing and the whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth."

And in his bitterness, he had signed Gyan’s future at Sunderland. There will not be one. "I don't really believe Gyan will have a future here. It baffles me how he can leave the best league in the world to play in the United Arab Emirates. I'll let people make their own conclusions why."

The conclusion is simple: he was not happy; he felt Sunderland’s motivations had waned and he wanted a good deal. Will one of Africa’s brightest striking talents regret this backward move? Can he return to England to the warmth of any fan base? Would anyone take him seriously again? How does it affect his place in Ghana’s national team?

I’m sure he thought about all this. One thing is certain, though. In football when you leave the action, the action leaves you.

We’ll see.