Marked for Kolawole Sheriff
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Oct 2027
Newton Adebayo damages knee ligaments — 112 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 112 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad4 Oct 2027
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market4 Oct 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Inter Allies is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” James Adeniyi and Inter Allies agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Musa Afeez 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 ratings4 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces4 Oct 2027
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Aug 2027
129 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Inter Allies lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Kabiru Murtala out for 16 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inter Allies will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market16 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
$190.0K on the table at WAFA. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad16 Aug 2027
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Musa Afeez 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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Bashar Musa 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jul 2027
38 days out for Kabiru Murtala after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Inter Allies will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Musa Afeez in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inter Allies this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Inter Allies training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adeyemo Bolaji 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 dugout26 Jul 2027
“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 dugout26 Jul 2027
James Adeniyi knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and James Adeniyi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Match26 Jul 2027
Continental football is in reach for Inter Allies
53 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 51. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match5 Dec 2026
After 8 games, Inter Allies finally taste it again
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Wa All Stars; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” George Micheal and Inter Allies agree another 2 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Adeyemo Bolaji 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 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pius Ibrahim was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match5 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout7 Dec 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Inter Allies, another week without a signature from Kolawole Sheriff.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Yakubu Abbas beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match21 Nov 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Musa Afeez in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inter Allies this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Inter Allies training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adeyemo Bolaji 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Salim Adams, and the manager let it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Pius Ibrahim dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
The step up is real for Bashar Musa
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Adeyemo Bolaji 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Salim Adams 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 terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Victor Torisheju 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
A 2‑0 win over New Edubiase United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to George Micheal, and the manager let it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 7.98 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Inter Allies had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Patrick Paintsil on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Adeyemo Bolaji and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 Sep 2026
1‑3 to Ashanti Gold, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Salim Adams
“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 dugout28 Sep 2026
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Patrick Paintsil to a room that had heard them before.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Inter Allies training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Lartey 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
Pius Ibrahim dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Kolawole Sheriff 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Chances created: 5. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.