Marked for Daniel Kakai
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Obasanjo, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and George Odhiambo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Oct 2026
8 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
George 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
125% of the income goes out in wages at Bidco United
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Bidco United who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ochieng Ayumba and Bidco United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
George Odhiambo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 Sep 2026
1‑3 to Bandari, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Amos Kagere left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simon Munala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Peter Wafula, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Nobody at Bidco United is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Jacob Onyango gets picked when it counts
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 Jacob Onyango is on it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 10. 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Christopher Raila keeps the shirt for now, at Bidco United's convenience rather than his own.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
Daniel Kakai in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
George Odhiambo 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.
The dugout21 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Amos Kagere to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Bidco United have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Michael Bodo gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Simon Munala has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Bidco United 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.51 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Bidco United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. George Odhiambo 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Daniel Kakai was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
9 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Amos Kagere after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Donald Ange Paterne trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Daniel Kakai finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Bidco United have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Oliver Machaka at 21 — 7.95
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Oliver Machaka did not need any: 7.95, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Bidco United until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
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.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
At 21 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Oliver Machaka’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Bidco United.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The formation has left Oliver Machaka behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Bidco United will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Bidco United will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Amos Kagere, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Obasanjo, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Aug 2026
Gor Mahia ended it 1‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad31 Aug 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Bidco United — 7.48
1 for Michael Bodo, marked 7.48, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and George Odhiambo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Bidco United asked and Bandari said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Steve Hoffman
“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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Amos Kagere after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Bidco United and Shabana have settled on $14.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Daniel Kakai and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and George Odhiambo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Victor Owusu is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Eric Okoth is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. George Okoth is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ibrahim Kahata has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Match8 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Tusker, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Kakai and Bidco United agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Bidco United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Kakai 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Ulinzi Stars left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Steve Hoffman has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Bidco United know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Amos Kagere left the room before anybody could ask which.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Lazarazu Otieno is in the works
Bidco United have made the call to Posta Rangers. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Kenya Police have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.