The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Warri Wolves is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 May 2028
Gift Isioma 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.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Peter Simon could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of David Joseph
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Warri Wolves, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutUche Sabastine has become a man the manager trusts
Wasiu Jimoh 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Qudus Olayiwola and Warri Wolves agree another 3 years.
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 Vincent Edafe is on it.
Gift Isioma 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.
Chisom Ogbun 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.
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 Vincent Edafe is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Joseph was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Warri Wolves, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Wasiu Jimoh signs something — a contract at Warri Wolves or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Wasiu Jimoh 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Warri Wolves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gift Isioma 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Chisom Orji trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$37.0K was the most the club would pay and El-Kanemi Warriors were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Peter Simon to a room that had heard them before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ezekiel Oroh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Enyimba next, and one man in the Warri Wolves 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 Warri Wolves can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 8 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. Nasarawa United moved on, Godstime Edewor reports back to Warri Wolves, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Warri Wolves have gone to El-Kanemi Warriors with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Warri Wolves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gift Isioma 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 level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Warri Wolves know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
In brief
The dugoutChisom Orji knocks on the manager's door
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Warri Wolves have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.57 for the rest of it.
$37.0K on the table at El-Kanemi Warriors. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Gift Isioma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Warri Wolves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saturday Erimuya 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ikorodu City have kept their man, and Warri Wolves go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Warri Wolves is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Othuke Egbo will call it something else in private.
Godwin Oham, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.93
A mark of 7.93 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.
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.
Alimi Adebayo 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.
Half the programme played, position 5, 34 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Peter Simon kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Joseph was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Warri Wolves is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Warri Wolves is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Joseph was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Bendel Insurance the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Warri Wolves will enjoy reviewing.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.82, and 2 involvements.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Peter Simon was not hiding it after 3‑3, and nobody in the Warri Wolves dressing room was either.
Squad22 Feb 2027
David Joseph 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Niger Tornadoes waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Warri Wolves is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Warri Wolves 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Warri Wolves is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Rivers United keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Gift Isioma 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.
“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 Warri Wolves, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Warri Wolves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Joseph 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ezekiel Oroh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Warri Wolves 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Warri Wolves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Joseph 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Warri Wolves they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Warri Wolves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Joseph 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.
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 Amatesiro Shemayi is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Warri Wolves. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Warri Wolves, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Joseph was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Warri Wolves 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Warri Wolves can pretend not to have heard.
Wasiu Jimoh 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.
7 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.
The dugout28 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 0‑5 defeat, delivered by Peter Simon to a room that had heard them before.
Beaten 5 times, with 3 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Joseph was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutOthuke Egbo knocks on the manager’s door
Looking aheadWarri Wolves take on the side everybody is chasing
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Warri Wolves can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Warri Wolves is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vincent Edafe and Warri Wolves agree another 4 years.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 87. Ikorodu City had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Eromosele Zibiri has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Warri Wolves.
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.” Peter Simon chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
SquadDavid Joseph falls out with a teammate over standards