“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 The request is on a desk at Ikorodu City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 18 and 22 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ikorodu City people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ikorodu City they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ikorodu City have done the hard part with Remo Stars, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Tosin Oyedokun 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bendel Insurance have kept their man, and Ikorodu City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 The request is on a desk at Ikorodu City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ikorodu City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Tosin Oyedokun 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Habibu Yakubu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” William Madu after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“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 The request is on a desk at Ikorodu City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ikorodu City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Ikorodu City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Naheem Odugbemi 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.
“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 Ikorodu City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Dennis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ikorodu City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Tosin Oyedokun 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michael Atata trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“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 Ikorodu City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Dennis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ikorodu City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Tosin Oyedokun 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tosin Oyedokun. 2‑0 against Kwara United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Habibu Yakubu 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ikorodu City have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ikorodu City can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ikorodu City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.84, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ikorodu City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Samuel Ezekiel 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.
Ikorodu City ran out of time with Shooting Stars. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Katsina United spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
“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 Ikorodu City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Tosin Oyedokun 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.
Ikorodu City asked and Shooting Stars said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Joseph Arumala 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.
Add another name to the list: Bayelsa United have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Daniel Dennis. The answer from Ikorodu City has not changed — yet.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ikorodu City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Suleiman Nasiru trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.