Gideon Monday and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Silas Nenrot 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 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.
Position 3 on 70 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ikouwem Utin and Plateau United agree another 4 years.
“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.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
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 1‑2 Isaac Akinola left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Plateau United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Silas Nenrot 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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
1 for Jonathan Okechukwu, marked 7.56, 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Plateau United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ossy Martins 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amos Aliyu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Isaac Akinola could afford to be generous.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Gimba Ajiji’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Plateau United needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Plateau United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Michael Akpan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Olayinka Awaziem is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Chukwuma Obafemi 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Emmanuel Sadiq is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Paul Odeh was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Plateau United can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 34 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Wikki Tourists moved on, Almustapha Kabiru reports back to Plateau United, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Silas Nenrot was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Paul Odeh is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Plateau United people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Victor Dawa 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.
14 combined actions and 7.63. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.26, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Plateau United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mustapha Abdullahi 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.
Plateau United have made the call to Hradec Králové. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Plateau United have made the call to Mamelodi Sundowns. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Victor Dawa 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and Plateau United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Isaac Akinola after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A loan enquiry to Mamelodi Sundowns: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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 Plateau United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gimba Ajiji. 2‑0 against Bayelsa United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Paul Odeh was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yahaya Ibrahim was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 May 2027
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.” Isaac Akinola, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Plateau United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Victor Dawa 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Plateau United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mustapha Abdullahi 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Isaac Akinola after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Bayelsa United next, and one man in the Plateau United dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Plateau United can pretend not to have heard.
14 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Maren Kefas, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.67
A mark of 7.67 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Victor Dawa 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.
Wikki Tourists will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Plateau United were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
13 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Plateau United 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. Gafar Saka 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Gideon Monday in the middle of it, and Wikki Tourists unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Plateau United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Victor Dawa 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 first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Remo Stars; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Plateau United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mustapha Abdullahi 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Plateau United has been clear about where Iwueke Obiuto stands, which is more than many ever get.
A brace, and Gimba Ajiji takes the afternoon — 8.43
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gimba Ajiji provided it, and the 8.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for 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 Plateau United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.82, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Gimba Ajiji had Plateau United level again within 3 minutes, and Enyimba never got to play with a lead at all.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Silas Nenrot 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Plateau United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and Plateau United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 23 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.
Marked 8.40 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mustapha Abdullahi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
SuperSport United 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Isaac Akinola could afford to be generous.
Victor Dawa 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dasok Nanribet is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.05, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Mafeng Pam was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
“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 Plateau United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Victor Dawa 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.
Plateau United asked and Platinum Stars said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Plateau United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mustapha Abdullahi 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.
“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 Plateau United, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Plateau United have done the hard part with Orlando Pirates, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Plateau United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Teboho Billiat is in the works