“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Kalu Nweke 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Enyimba than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
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.
Ezekiel Edidiong and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Enyimba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kelvin Ogunga 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 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 Enyimba will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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 Bassey John is on it.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Adekunle Mojeed has moved up it.
In brief
The dugoutUfere Chukwu knocks on the manager's door
Ezekiel Edidiong 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.
Marked 8.33 — 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.
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Enyimba will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 19 gone
That is the business done at Enyimba 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.
Ezekiel Edidiong and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Enyimba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kelvin Ogunga 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.
Out, 3‑4 to Niger Tornadoes, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Ezekiel Edidiong 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Enyimba and Niger Tornadoes in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Enyimba can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Enyimba is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Kingsley Maduforo has agreed terms with Rivers United for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Ezekiel Edidiong 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sunday Aniebet. 3‑1 against Kwara United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
SquadWords at Enyimba training over how hard people work
The terracesEnyimba supporters have found a favourite in David Eke
Player ratingsUfere Chukwu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Kano Pillars will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Enyimba were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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 hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Joel Ezra did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ufere Chukwu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Enyimba the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ifeanyi Ihemekwele has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Enyimba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Enyimba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kelvin Ogunga 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 helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Kano Pillars tried to reorganise, Enyimba did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
A brace, and Bassey John takes the afternoon — 9.39
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bassey John provided it, and the 9.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Enyimba they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Nathaniel Asibe has agreed terms with Rivers United for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Ezekiel Edidiong 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.
He is 20 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Bayelsa United had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Enyimba they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ezekiel Edidiong and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Enyimba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kelvin Ogunga 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.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sunday Aniebet, and the manager let it.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Samuel Bassey chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.