“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kakamega Homeboyz can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kakamega Homeboyz they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Denis Iguma 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Machaka 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.
“I watch every Kakamega Homeboyz game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Muranga Seal runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Anthony Karisa chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The clubs have shaken hands with Ulinzi Stars; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer from US Bougouni for Derrick Otanga was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Kenya Police keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bandari have kept their man, and Kakamega Homeboyz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Denis Iguma and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Boniface Onyango is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kakamega Homeboyz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kakamega Homeboyz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nobody at Kakamega Homeboyz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kakamega Homeboyz know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Lungisani Mncwabe may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kakamega Homeboyz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kakamega Homeboyz will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kakamega Homeboyz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
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.
In brief
The dugoutVincent Ogolla has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Portipher Odhiambo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody at Kakamega Homeboyz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Denis Iguma and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I did not go to Mara Sugar to sit and watch. I want to come back to Kakamega Homeboyz and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
Nobody at Kakamega Homeboyz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Derrick Otanga signs something — a contract at Kakamega Homeboyz or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Derrick Otanga is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kakamega Homeboyz know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Kakamega Homeboyz would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Denis Iguma 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.
“I watch every Kakamega Homeboyz game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mara Sugar runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Geoffrey Ochieng is on it.
Kariobangi Sharks are out and Kakamega Homeboyz go through, 0‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
“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 Kakamega Homeboyz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Muranga Seal have kept their man, and Kakamega Homeboyz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Denis Iguma and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.