Marked for Godwin Oham
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Aug 2027
Every point is an argument now for Warri Wolves
Position 18 and 34 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.
Market23 Aug 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A move Chari Giwa would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Chari Giwa is living that version at Warri Wolves, and it tends to show in the first month.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Godwin Oham, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.74
A mark of 7.74 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match21 Aug 2027
Whatever happens, Warri Wolves do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Market23 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Warri Wolves is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Othuke Egbo 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 Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
Remo Stars will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Jérôme Bonou has pre-agreed a move to Warri Wolves, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 May 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.
Match29 May 2027
8 matches without a win for Warri Wolves
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Warri Wolves are no longer polite ones.
Match31 May 2027
Every point is an argument now for Warri Wolves
Position 18 and 17 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.
Market31 May 2027
Only the photograph left for Peter Dakka
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Peter Dakka will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Warri Wolves the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad31 May 2027
Othuke Egbo 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 Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Warri Wolves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joseph Nathaniel 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.
Squad31 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Ezekiel Oroh
“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.
Match29 May 2027
Nasarawa United left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Feb 2027
0‑3 to Bendel Insurance, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The terraces22 Feb 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 10 of the 33 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market22 Feb 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Warri Wolves is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Warri Wolves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alimi Adebayo 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 ratings22 Feb 2027
Seth Mayi runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Nobody left the Warri Wolves dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A promise honoured for Othuke Egbo
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Warri Wolves told Othuke Egbo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Jan 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 Warri Wolves, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Jan 2027
The bid was some way short and Warri Wolves did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Warri Wolves may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Zoey Monyepao is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match9 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Warri Wolves's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Warri Wolves has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match9 Jan 2027
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Warri Wolves can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vincent Edafe, and the manager let it.