From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Jul 2031
The cup run ends for Remo Stars
1-2 against Rangers International , and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market14 Jul 2031
The bid was some way short and Remo Stars did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market14 Jul 2031
“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.
Squad14 Jul 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match12 Jul 2031
Plateau United left with the points after a 1-3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Jul 2031
A season average of 7.29 with 8 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad14 Jul 2031
Serge Obassa 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.
Squad14 Jul 2031
Mohammed Garba asks for a word with the manager“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market14 Jul 2031
Abia Warriors are about to pick up the phoneA conversation is coming this week. Remo Stars will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 May 2031
42 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad19 May 2031
17 goals and a season average of 7.51. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad19 May 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match17 May 2031
Still nobody has beaten Remo Stars
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.
Squad19 May 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Usman Abdullahi commits to Remo Stars for another 3 years.
Squad19 May 2031
“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
Squad14 Apr 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market14 Apr 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Remo Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 Apr 2031
The manager makes an example of Sunday Megwo
“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
Steady
Match30 Dec 2030
Remo Stars are in among the leadersPosition 2 and 72 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Abuchi Okeke : 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.” Remo Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Dec 2030
The manager makes an example of Usman Abdullahi
“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.
Market30 Dec 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Remo Stars know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market30 Dec 2030
Denis Nya runs his contract down2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Remo Stars money.
Boardroom30 Dec 2030
The Remo Stars production line keeps running
28 graduates out of an academy now rated 15 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match11 May 2030
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Remo Stars did not have in the autumn.
Squad13 May 2030
Jerry Alex : 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.” Remo Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad13 May 2030
Adama Goïta is in the form of his lifeA season average of 7.33 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Jerry Alex Jerry Alex: that is not what I was promised
Match11 May 2030
Three points for Remo Stars , 1-0 the final word against Warri Wolves in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad13 May 2030
80 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad13 May 2030
Sunday Megwo 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.
Market13 May 2030
The name of Anthony Uzodimma keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Remo Stars say nothing, which says plenty.
Market13 May 2030
No fee and no drama: Usman Abdullahi has signed at Remo Stars , and the wage bill is the only line that moved.
Market13 May 2030
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Iniekade Timitimi leaves Remo Stars the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.