Marked for Mohammed Faisal
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match29 Apr 2028
15 matches without a win for Wikki Tourists
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Wikki Tourists are no longer polite ones.
The terraces1 May 2028
Anger at Wikki Tourists spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market1 May 2028
“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.
The dugout1 May 2028
Mohammed Faisal: 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.” Wikki Tourists have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match29 Apr 2028
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Wikki Tourists can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad1 May 2028
Aliyu Mamuda 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.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ifeanyi Ezema was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 May 2028
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Feb 2028
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Squad7 Feb 2028
The knee: Osayi Omeruo out for 30 days
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Wikki Tourists lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match2 Feb 2028
Kun Khalifat are out and Wikki Tourists go through, 0‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Stephen Wisdom gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Stephen Wisdom has just signed for Wikki Tourists, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Window shuts: 11 in, 6 out at Wikki Tourists
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Feb 2028
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Abdullahi Usman reports back to Wikki Tourists with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
The deal with Kwara United 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.
Market7 Feb 2028
As if he never left: Jimmy Ambrose returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Jimmy Ambrose is a Wikki Tourists player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aliyu Abubakar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Otutu Young, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sadeeq Abdulahi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 May 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 Wikki Tourists, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Wikki Tourists may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Wikki Tourists training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sani Ibrahim 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Aliyu Mamuda 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 dugout24 May 2027
“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 ratings24 May 2027
7.68, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Wikki Tourists had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout24 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Michael Ogunjobi, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout24 May 2027
Sani Ibrahim 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 Wikki Tourists, and both men came out saying it was fine.