52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Remo Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Ikorodu City for Emmanuel Olisa 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Remo Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Remo Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Okechukwu Azubuike 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.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Remo Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Remo Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Remo Stars will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Pam Samuel is living that version at Remo Stars, and it tends to show in the first month.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Remo Stars know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aduana Stars can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aduana Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stephen Kwakye and Aduana Stars agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Aduana Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Idowu 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 98 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 name of Wale Musa Alli has come up in conversations Remo Stars were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Ezekiel Tamara 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.
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.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Remo Stars would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
The words a physio says slowly. 105 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 Remo Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Remo Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Okechukwu Azubuike 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.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Remo Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Ezekiel Tamara 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
4 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.
David Idowu 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.
1‑3 to Liberty Professionals, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Stephen Badu 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.
Shots: 4. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Samuel Anakwe 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Michael Okoro 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.
Ezekiel Tamara 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.
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 Remo Stars 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Daouda Sidibé 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Aduana Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephen Badu 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Aduana Stars, and 1 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
Out, 2‑3 to Rangers International, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows 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 Remo Stars 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Samuel Anakwe was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Nobody at Remo Stars 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aduana Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Daouda Sidibé 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Emmanuel Olisa has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Aduana Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Aduana Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Godknows Dzakpasu has just signed for Aduana Stars, and for once the answer mattered.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Remember Adomako Boateng is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Aduana Stars
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
A 3‑1 win over Heart of Lions, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kwame Annan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Remo Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
14 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Remo Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Okechukwu Azubuike 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Biola Sabitu has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Remo Stars, and 0 appearances in 29 say he has earned the hearing.
4 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.
Ezekiel Tamara 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.
8 goals in one match, Samuel Anakwe on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Remo Stars and Ikorodu City.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Alex Oyowah has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The name of Emmanuel Olisa has come up in conversations Remo Stars were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Ezekiel Tamara 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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Remo Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Wale Musa Alli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.65. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Ezekiel Tamara 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.
A 3‑2 win over Nasarawa United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Remo Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wale Musa Alli 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Serge Obassa has his answer from Remo Stars; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Samuel Anakwe was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Ezekiel Tamara 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Remo Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wale Musa Alli 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wikki Tourists 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.
Serge Obassa 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.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wikki Tourists this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Sani Ibrahim 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Remo Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Remo Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Victor Mbaoma 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Remo Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ezekiel Tamara 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Remo Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wale Musa Alli 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 Remo Stars game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Katsina United runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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 Wikki Tourists, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wikki Tourists this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Wikki Tourists training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sani Ibrahim 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Remo Stars 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Remo Stars, another week without a signature from Sodiq Oshidero.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Imamu Bala reports back to Wikki Tourists with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wikki Tourists this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Naziru Auwalu has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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.
The offer from Djoliba for Adama Goïta 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 terraces10 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 10 of the 35 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Samuel Anakwe 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.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Emmanuel Olisa again, and this time the name on the line is Kano Pillars. Remo Stars are listening politely and promising nothing.