Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Kevin Ouma 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.
Michael Bodo 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 dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Francis Ochieng was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Bidco United dressing room was either.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Kenya Police defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bidco United can pretend not to have heard.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Bidco United will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The deal with Sofapaka is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bidco United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The medical room confirms 54 days on the sidelines for Nehemiah Onchiri, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Bidco United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jacob Onyango 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.
A loan enquiry to Kakamega Homeboyz: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Christopher Koloti arrives from AFC Leopards with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Add another name to the list: Ulinzi Stars have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about John Otieno. The answer from Bidco United has not changed — yet.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thereso Chuene and Bidco United agree another 3 years.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Bidco United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jacob Onyango 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.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Daniel Kakai 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Daniel Kakai signs something — a contract at Bidco United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Bidco United the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bidco United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Bidco United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simon Munala 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and John Otieno trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Daniel Mjengu 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Peter Wafula was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bidco United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Daniel Mjengu 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Daniel Kakai 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Bidco United know which stage they are at.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bidco United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Simphiwe Dumisa is living that version at Bidco United, and it tends to show in the first month.
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mpendulo Ntuli and Bidco United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Bidco United have gone and got theirs early.
The words a physio says slowly. 54 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Kakai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
In brief
SquadBidco United are still strangers to each other
62 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bidco United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Kakai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Michael Bodo 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Francis Ochieng to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Edward Omondi Ondimo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bidco United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Daniel Kakai 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bidco United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
76 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bidco United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Mark Bikokwa will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Bidco United escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Two goals and a mark of 8.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Kakai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bidco United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peter Wafula was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Francis Ochieng to a room that had heard them before.
The words a physio says slowly. 91 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.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bidco United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peter Wafula was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 Sep 2026
7 new faces, and Bidco United are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Simon Munala's mistake
98 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bidco United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Kakai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Francis Ochieng after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Bidco United will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kennedy Ochieng’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Bidco United needing him to play as if none of it matters.
105 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bidco United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Daniel Kakai 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Bidco United will try again when the window opens; Kakamega Homeboyz may not be selling by then.
George Manyama 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Bidco United than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The words a physio says slowly. 112 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Kakamega Homeboyz; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Michael Bodo 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.