Marked for Hosea Michael
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Oct 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Remo Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market25 Oct 2027
Sodiq Oshidero has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Remo Stars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad25 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Usman Abubakar commits to Remo Stars for another 4 years.
Squad25 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Remo Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Aminu Sani 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.
Market25 Oct 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Agu Kenechukwu has his answer from Remo Stars; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
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.
Market25 Oct 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Samuel Anakwe’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Biola Sabitu wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Remo Stars have no good answer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match6 Sep 2027
First, on 72 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Market6 Sep 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Remo Stars people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market6 Sep 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market6 Sep 2027
The deal that would have taken Olamilekan Adedayo to El-Kanemi Warriors has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Remo Stars with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Market6 Sep 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Remo Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 14 gone
That is the business done at Remo Stars 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Hosea Michael 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
A row about effort at Remo Stars
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Akinyele was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Remo Stars prefer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Aug 2027
The view from the top for Remo Stars
63 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Market9 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Remo Stars people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market9 Aug 2027
“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 Remo Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Remo Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match7 Aug 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Hadi Haruna’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Remo Stars.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Antonio Galeano was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Remo Stars
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Akinyele was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hosea Michael and Remo Stars agree another 5 years.
In brief
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Squad
Biola Sabitu makes it 24 clean sheets
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
Samuel Anakwe beats them one at a time
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Jul 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Remo Stars have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market19 Jul 2027
The bid was some way short and Remo Stars did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market19 Jul 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Remo Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Hadi Haruna 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.
Match17 Jul 2027
Plateau United left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Ahmed Akinyele 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 dugout19 Jul 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Oscar Onyekuru to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Jul 2027
First, on 56 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Market5 Jul 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Remo Stars people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market5 Jul 2027
“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 Remo Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Up for the corner, and Tyronne Ebuehi delivers — 7.80
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Tyronne Ebuehi scored, was marked 7.80, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market5 Jul 2027
The deal that would have taken Sodiq Oshidero to Ikorodu City has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Remo Stars with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Usman Abubakar and Remo Stars agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Usman Abubakar 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 terraces5 Jul 2027
The crowd has taken to Adama Goïta
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Jun 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Remo Stars have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market21 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Chaka Coulibaly will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Remo Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market21 Jun 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market21 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match19 Jun 2027
4 matches without defeat, and then Abia Warriors. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
A promise honoured for Adama Goïta
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Remo Stars told Adama Goïta something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Remo Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jérôme Bonou 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Empoli 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad1 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ndidi Chukwueze
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Remo Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market1 Feb 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Remo Stars have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match30 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Abia Warriors spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
7.68, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Up for the corner, and Hosea Michael delivers — 6.99
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Hosea Michael scored, was marked 6.99, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Window shuts: 11 in, 0 out at Remo Stars
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market1 Feb 2027
Only the photograph left for Ebuka Anthony
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ebuka Anthony will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Remo Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match30 Jan 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Remo Stars have 3 straight wins of it.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Remo Stars have gone to Nasarawa 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Rangers International waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Remo Stars is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market11 Jan 2027
“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 Remo Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Qudus Akanni had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market11 Jan 2027
The bid was some way short and Remo Stars did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Hosea Michael is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Remo Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nasarawa United have kept their man, and Remo Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Ahmed Akinyele 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Emmanuel Olisa commits to Remo Stars for another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Dec 2026
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Market7 Dec 2026
Only the photograph left for Emmanuel Olisa
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emmanuel Olisa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Remo Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Remo Stars
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Akinyele was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alladoum Kolimba and Remo Stars agree another 1 years.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Hadi Haruna knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hadi Haruna trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
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 Chaka Coulibaly is on it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Hosea Michael moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Remo Stars than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Remo Stars. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market7 Dec 2026
Joseph Abah linked with a move away
The name of Joseph Abah keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Remo Stars say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
Lekan Malik slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Lekan Malik is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Remo Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Azeez Agboola 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.
Market2 Nov 2026
The Adama Goïta story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Adama Goïta signs something — a contract at Remo Stars or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Emmanuel Olisa asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Adama Goïta keeps his manager's vote
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Adama Goïta plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Remo Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Hosea Michael is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Lekan Malik 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Samuel Anakwe has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Remo Stars.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jérôme Bonou, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Remo Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Azeez Agboola 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Samuel Anakwe asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Adama Goïta is the weekend's best young player
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Chaka Coulibaly has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Remo Stars 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Aduana Stars waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Remo Stars is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market14 Sep 2026
Odunsi Sunday hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Remo Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Remo Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Hosea Michael is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Remo Stars asked and WAFA said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Remo Stars
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Akinyele was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Biola Sabitu lets one through his hands
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
The afternoon belonged to Hadi Haruna
A mark of 7.67, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Kano Pillars leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Olayinka Simon
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Remo Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match19 Aug 2026
Niger Tornadoes go through and Remo Stars go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match22 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Ikorodu City, and it could have been more.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Joseph Abah at 19 — 7.80
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Joseph Abah did not need any: 7.80, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Remo Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from FC Diarra for Azeez Agboola 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade de Reims have kept their man, and Remo Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Remo Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Niger Tornadoes had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Joseph Abah, 19, steals the show — 8.18
Marked 8.18 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KAA Gent have kept their man, and Remo Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Hosea Michael 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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Joseph Abah 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ahmed Akinyele 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Oscar Onyekuru could afford to be generous.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
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.