Marked for Joseph Ameh
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Feb 2027
7 matches without a win for Kun Khalifat
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Kun Khalifat are no longer polite ones.
Market1 Mar 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 The request is on a desk at Kun Khalifat, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match27 Feb 2027
4 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Michael Akano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match27 Feb 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout1 Mar 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 William Akinola to a room that had heard them before.
Squad1 Mar 2027
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.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. 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 dugout1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joseph Ameh, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Jan 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market25 Jan 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Kun Khalifat had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Kano Pillars, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Remo Stars have kept their man, and Kun Khalifat go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Kun Khalifat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wisdom Obichere 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.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
17 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Joseph Ameh 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 dugout25 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Chukwuma Ukoh, and the manager let it.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” William Akinola was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Kun Khalifat dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Nov 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.
Squad2 Nov 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Kun Khalifat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Blessed Iyamu 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Joseph Ameh
“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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Kun Khalifat will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Chijioke Ahiaeke and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Lekan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sunday Kalu, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Kastrioti Krujë had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Kun Khalifat close the window on a squad of their own making
10 in and 5 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.
Market7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Peter Ikechukwu commits to Kun Khalifat for another 2 years.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Kun Khalifat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Lekan 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Hassan Olubode 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.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
A test against the best for Kun Khalifat
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Niger Tornadoes.
The dugout7 Sep 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
Crisis
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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The deal with Kano Pillars 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Solomon Odoemenam has come up in conversations Kun Khalifat were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Hassan Olubode 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. 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 dugout31 Aug 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Peter Ikechukwu commits to Kun Khalifat for another 2 years.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Joseph Ameh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from Skonto for Joseph Ameh 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Hassan Olubode commits to Kun Khalifat for another 4 years.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Kun Khalifat asked and Ikorodu City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Kun Khalifat have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Hassan Olubode 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 7.74. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Rivers United 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Kano Pillars 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.