Marked for Effimi Nsi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Sep 2031
281 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Abia Warriors know exactly what they have.
Match30 Aug 2031
Whatever happens, Abia Warriors do not lose
9 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Boardroom1 Sep 2031
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Abia Warriors 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.
Transfer targets1 Sep 2031
Everything agreed with Remo Stars, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets1 Sep 2031
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Berekum Chelsea is saying, and nobody at Abia Warriors is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets1 Sep 2031
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.
Player ratings1 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout1 Sep 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fatai Abdullahi, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Sep 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Abia Warriors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
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Player ratings
Nobody on the pitch touched Effimi Nsi
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The dugout
When it matters, Ali Ishaku plays
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings11 Aug 2031
Successful dribbles: 38. 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.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2031
$380.0K settles it between the clubs for Michael Zeppieri
Remo Stars have accepted the money. What Abia Warriors do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2031
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Abia Warriors have done the hard part with Remo Stars, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2031
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: WAFA keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match9 Aug 2031
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match9 Aug 2031
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Match9 Aug 2031
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Effimi Nsi. 1‑0 against Bendel Insurance, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings11 Aug 2031
A performance of 8.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad11 Aug 2031
A season average of 7.25 with 7 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 Jun 2031
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings16 Jun 2031
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Remo Stars; Abia Warriors go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
The deal with Remo Stars 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.
Match14 Jun 2031
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.
Squad16 Jun 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Abia Warriors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout16 Jun 2031
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 dugout16 Jun 2031
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Simon Sadiq was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Abia Warriors dressing room was either.
The dugout16 Jun 2031
Olayinka Iwobi knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Abia Warriors, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings12 May 2031
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout12 May 2031
Chijindu Godwill: 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.” Abia Warriors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings12 May 2031
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Squad12 May 2031
Chukwuemeka Obioma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match12 May 2031
Half the programme played, position 3, 39 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Squad12 May 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sharp Uzoigwe and Abia Warriors agree another 3 years.
Squad12 May 2031
6 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout12 May 2031
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Simon Sadiq could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 May 2031
Chindi Merpring wins it after the whistle should have gone
94 minutes played. Chindi Merpring found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Kano Pillars went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings5 May 2031
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.06, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings5 May 2031
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match3 May 2031
Abia Warriors make home a hard place to visit
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad5 May 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Effimi Nsi and Abia Warriors agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match3 May 2031
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Chindi Merpring. 2‑1 against Kano Pillars, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout5 May 2031
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Player ratings5 May 2031
The game went through Effimi Nsi — 7.39
Marked 7.39 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The dugout5 May 2031
The manager makes an example of Olayinka Iwobi
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Mar 2031
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Abia Warriors lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings3 Mar 2031
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Mar 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Fatai Abdullahi commits to Abia Warriors for another 3 years.
Match1 Mar 2031
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Chindi Merpring. 2‑0 against Niger Tornadoes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings3 Mar 2031
Effimi Nsi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
Player ratings3 Mar 2031
Ninety minutes of Chindi Merpring at his very best
Marked 8.08. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Abia Warriors.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Sharp Uzoigwe 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 dugout3 Mar 2031
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad3 Mar 2031
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Chidiebere Nnachi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Aug 2030
Emmanuel Ogbuagu damages knee ligaments — 92 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
Squad5 Aug 2030
A fracture rules Leon Abdullahi out for 53 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Abia Warriors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad5 Aug 2030
239 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
The dugout5 Aug 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Abia Warriors may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market5 Aug 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Abia Warriors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets5 Aug 2030
No thanks: Ergis Arifi rejects the move
Abia Warriors had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Teuta Durrës, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Player ratings5 Aug 2030
Effimi Nsi beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets5 Aug 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Prague have kept their man, and Abia Warriors go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match3 Aug 2030
El-Kanemi Warriors left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 May 2030
Suraju Lawal takes the match ball home
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad20 May 2030
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Abia Warriors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match18 May 2030
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Abia Warriors have 3 straight wins of it.
Player ratings20 May 2030
Suraju Lawal was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. 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.
Match18 May 2030
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Abia Warriors and Rangers International, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings20 May 2030
Ninety minutes of Chidiebere Nnachi at his very best
Marked 8.46. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Abia Warriors.
Player ratings20 May 2030
Effimi Nsi beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings20 May 2030
Chindi Merpring was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings1 Apr 2030
Successful dribbles: 44. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match30 Mar 2030
5 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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Excel Okam and Abia Warriors agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad1 Apr 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Abia Warriors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
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 dugout1 Apr 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Simon Sadiq was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Abia Warriors dressing room was either.
Match30 Mar 2030
Point won or two lost for Abia Warriors?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Bendel Insurance? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Every debut is a small story about the future: Daniel Nwankwo, 17 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
Market1 Apr 2030
The Suraju Lawal story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Suraju Lawal signs something — a contract at Abia Warriors or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Jan 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
The deal with Dynamo Kyiv 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.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Sharp Uzoigwe 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.
Player ratings21 Jan 2030
Effimi Nsi beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Septemvri have kept their man, and Abia Warriors go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match19 Jan 2030
0‑2 to Enyimba, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
Ali Ishaku 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.
Squad21 Jan 2030
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Simon Sadiq after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.