Marked for Chinonso Romanus
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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 The request is on a desk at Kun Khalifat, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kun Khalifat have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad4 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 Kun Khalifat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Kun Khalifat
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.
Match2 Jan 2027
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Chinonso Romanus 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 terraces4 Jan 2027
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.
Market4 Jan 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sunday Oduya has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market4 Jan 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Osayi Abdullahi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kun Khalifat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market26 Oct 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 Kun Khalifat can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Chinonso Romanus: 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.” Kun Khalifat have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kun Khalifat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market12 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad12 Oct 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 Kun Khalifat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kun Khalifat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market21 Sep 2026
Benson Benkin 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 Kun Khalifat can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Olughu Chinemerem 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Kun Khalifat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chinonso Romanus 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kun Khalifat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
27 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
26 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Olughu Chinemerem 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Gabriel Lekan 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 terraces7 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Alex Amaefula 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kun Khalifat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 Kun Khalifat, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match29 Aug 2026
6 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.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Prince Ndubuisi has agreed terms with Shooting Stars for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad31 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 Kun Khalifat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Chinonso Romanus 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Kun Khalifat, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Kun Khalifat's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kun Khalifat has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Akpan Nsikak-Abong 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Gabriel Lekan 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Nasarawa United left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
US Bougouni come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Kun Khalifat did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gabriel Lekan and Kun Khalifat agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Akpan Nsikak-Abong 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Gabriel Lekan 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.