The words a physio says slowly. 102 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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 The request is on a desk at Imotski, and it is not being withdrawn.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
The phone has started ringing about Ítalo Pica-Pau again, and this time the name on the line is Lucko. Imotski are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Imotski 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Jean Galindo, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 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.
Dragan Lovrić 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Imotski training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianfranco Leiva 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.
Denis Simiyu is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
The words a physio says slowly. 93 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 Shabana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Cliff Nyakeya 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.
“I watch every Shabana game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at APS Bomet runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Marked 5.75. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Odoyo, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Shabana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Justine Nyangwara 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 Shabana has been clear about where Mark Okola stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Shabana 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shabana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Shabana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shabana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Gilbert Abala has agreed terms with Kakamega Homeboyz for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shabana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
George Onyango 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Shabana training over how hard people work
Loan watchDenis Simiyu watches his loan from the bench
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shabana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Shabana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Justine Nyangwara 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.