Marked for Gafar Saka
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yahaya Ibrahim
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Plateau United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market18 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dynamo Douala waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Plateau United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match16 Jan 2027
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market18 Jan 2027
Joshua Dabo 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 Plateau United can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Albert Hilary: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Plateau United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market18 Jan 2027
The bid was some way short and Plateau United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Plateau United have done the hard part with Sabah, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Victor Dawa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Plateau United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Plateau United asked and Vitoria Guimaraes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yahaya Ibrahim
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Plateau United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Gafar Saka: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Plateau United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market4 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 Plateau United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match2 Jan 2027
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Victor Dawa 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
At 19 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Plateau United
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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Plateau United have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yahaya Ibrahim
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Plateau United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Victor Dawa 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
Gafar Saka gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yahaya Ibrahim
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Plateau United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Victor Dawa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Plateau United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Plateau United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrew Majalisa 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
Yahaya Ibrahim damages knee ligaments — 121 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 121 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jonathan Okechukwu is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Victor Dawa 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
John Amah gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tarabina Biweribo and Plateau United agree another 3 years.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Both of them Gafar Saka's — 8.78
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.78, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad28 Sep 2026
31 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Victor Dawa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Plateau United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Gafar Saka
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Plateau United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mustapha Abdullahi 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Kun Khalifat had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Match26 Sep 2026
After 4 games, Plateau United finally taste it again
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Kun Khalifat; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Plateau United are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I watch every Plateau United game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bodo/Glimt runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.