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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Great Olympics is running low.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Great Olympics they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The offer went to New Edubiase United this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Great Olympics this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 The request is on a desk at Great Olympics, and it is not being withdrawn.
Great Olympics have gone to New Edubiase United 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.
Ebenezer Kpozo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Seth Paintsil 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.
Add another name to the list: Heart of Lions have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Osafo Antwi. The answer from Great Olympics has not changed — yet.
“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 Great Olympics will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Great Olympics can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Great Olympics this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Great Olympics training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Seth Paintsil 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.
At 33, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Evans Oppong trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A new face in his position, and Carlos Ohene suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Great Olympics have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Seth Paintsil 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khama Mahlangu 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 Great Olympics, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mamudo Moro and Great Olympics agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Great Olympics this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Great Olympics training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Seth Paintsil 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Great Olympics, another week without a signature from Godfred Asiamah.
Carlos Ohene has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Great Olympics could ask drops and the wages Salim Uzair Baafada can ask rise.
1‑4 against Asante Kotoko, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Ebenezer Kpozo 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 Seth Paintsil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Emmanuel Ofori.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Emmanuel Ofori and Great Olympics agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Great Olympics 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 Simon Obonde was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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 Kwadwo Addo to a room that had heard them before.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Great Olympics, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Matthew Agama’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Great Olympics needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dennis Konney and Great Olympics agree another 4 years.
Ebenezer Kpozo 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 14 combined actions and a mark of 6.86, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Great Olympics training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Seth Paintsil 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 midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.10, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Great Olympics pretended it was anything other than a decision about 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 Great Olympics can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: New Edubiase United keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Great Olympics close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Dennis Konney and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Seth Paintsil 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 clock did what Bechem United would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Kwadwo Addo to a room that had heard them before.
“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 Great Olympics, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Osafo Antwi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Great Olympics the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Seth Paintsil 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.
0‑1 to Heart of Lions, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Kelvin Andoh 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Position 15 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Great Olympics have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with New Edubiase United is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Berekum Chelsea were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Great Olympics training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simon Obonde 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 warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohammed Yahaya 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.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Emmanuel Ofori
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Great Olympics have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Carlos Ohene and Great Olympics agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Great Olympics this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Seth Paintsil, and the manager let it.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Great Olympics training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kelvin Andoh 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.
Half the programme played, position 16, 9 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“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 Great Olympics, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Matthew Agama 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 team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Simon Obonde trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 16 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Seth Paintsil 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.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Great Olympics training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kelvin Andoh 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dennis Konney did not need any: 7.98, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ebenezer Kpozo, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Nov 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 1‑3 Kwadwo Addo left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Great Olympics told Emmanuel Ofori something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Great Olympics training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Godfred Asiamah 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.
Wa All Stars next, and one man in the Great Olympics dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“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 Great Olympics will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Seth Paintsil 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.
5 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Great Olympics, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Elvis Addo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Great Olympics needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“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 Great Olympics will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Great Olympics the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
In brief
Looking aheadLooking ahead: the trip to Aduana Stars
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Elvis Addo
Seth Paintsil 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ntokozo Dlamini has just signed for Great Olympics, and for once the answer mattered.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Great Olympics can tell you which week it ends in.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Kwadwo Addo after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mohammed Yahaya has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Benjamin Twum is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emmanuel Ofori trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
1 for Oko Onyedika, marked 7.77, 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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Kwadwo Addo after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Great Olympics, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Great Olympics can pretend not to have heard.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Heart of Lions moved on, Osafo Antwi reports back to Great Olympics, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Dennis Konney and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Simon Obonde 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.
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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Great Olympics people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Emmanuel Ofori has, at Great Olympics, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Great Olympics close the window on a squad of their own making
13 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Great Olympics this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Patrick Asamoah 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Kwame Owusu 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bendel Insurance people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have shaken hands with Warri Wolves; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Stephen Chukwude has come out of that comparison in the side, and Bendel Insurance have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Berekum Chelsea waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bendel Insurance is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bendel Insurance can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bendel Insurance have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bendel Insurance is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
$120.0K on the table at Warri Wolves. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Stephen Chukwude in the middle of it, and Rangers International unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Chinedu Nwosu 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.
“Every summer it is another club, another set of team-mates, another manager to convince. I have done all that. Now I want a pre-season at Bendel Insurance and a proper look at me.” He remains SJK’s player until the spell runs out — but the argument is with the club that owns him.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Oke Kayode
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bendel Insurance people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Bendel Insurance, and it is not being withdrawn.
Oke Kayode 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.
$120.0K was the most the club would pay and Warri Wolves 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oke Kayode. 1‑0 against Kano Pillars, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 7.83. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout21 Jun 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.” Olayinka Moffi, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
In brief
The dugoutOnyia Henry knocks on the manager's door
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The offer from KCB for Anthony Cletus was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Oke Kayode 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 morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Oghenekaro Obi 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.
Oke Kayode 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Chinedu Nwosu 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.
Onyia Henry 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 Chinedu Nwosu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Oke Kayode 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Chinedu Nwosu 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.
5 goals in 9 games at Katsina United — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Bendel Insurance updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Kelvin Akinmola 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Onochie Chukwu 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.
That is the business done at Bendel Insurance 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Julius Emiloju Junior and Bendel Insurance agree another 3 years.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Prague have kept their man, and Bendel Insurance go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chinedu Nwosu 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Emmanuel Nwokeji is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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 Stephen Chukwude is on it.
Wikki Tourists next, and one man in the Bendel Insurance dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.