Marked for Peter Ikechukwu
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 9 in, 6 out at Kun Khalifat
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kun Khalifat can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Peter Ikechukwu commits to Kun Khalifat for another 2 years.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kun Khalifat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Hassan Olubode has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Kun Khalifat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanley Nnanna 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 dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Peter Ikechukwu's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ebunobi Onyedika, and the manager let it.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Tega Ebetomane knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tega Ebetomane trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Aug 2026
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.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Kun Khalifat sell a favourite for $67.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Divine Onourah was one of the reasons people came, and $67.0K does not replace that by itself.
Market31 Aug 2026
Divine Onourah has left for AS Trencin in a $67.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Hassan Olubode 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Nasarawa United, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Peter Ikechukwu commits to Kun Khalifat for another 2 years.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A loan move for Jerry Isaac is in the works
Kun Khalifat have made the call to Niger Tornadoes. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A loan move for Sodiq Oshidero is in the works
Kun Khalifat have made the call to Remo Stars. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and AS Trencin waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kun Khalifat is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Chinonso Romanus takes the afternoon — 7.91
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Chinonso Romanus provided it, and the 7.91 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Kun Khalifat's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kun Khalifat has to find a result from somewhere.
Market24 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Kun Khalifat did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kun Khalifat have done the hard part with Remo Stars, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Michael Akano 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hassan Olubode was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match22 Aug 2026
Late, late show earns Kun Khalifat a point
Minute 92, against Abia Warriors, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.