Marked for Idris Bashir
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kano Pillars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market5 Apr 2027
Ahmed Musa has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kano Pillars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Abdullahi Musa 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 Apr 2027
Ali Abdullahi 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.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match3 Apr 2027
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. Enyimba had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.86 on the card, and the Kano Pillars support went home talking about one name.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Idris Bashir makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market5 Apr 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Abuchi Okeke has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Kano Pillars.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Nov 2026
Idris Bashir hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kano Pillars can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kano Pillars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mustapha Umar commits to Kano Pillars for another 4 years.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Fabian Nworie 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Habibu Yakubu
“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 dugout30 Nov 2026
Fabian Nworie 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Abdullahi Musa 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Kano Pillars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Abdullahi 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohammad Mukhtar, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market16 Nov 2026
The shop window has Idris Bashir in it
Kano Pillars have let the market know Idris Bashir can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Nov 2026
“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 dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kano Pillars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout2 Nov 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Auwalu Ali Malam 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Rabiu Yusuf is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Rabiu Yusuf has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Idris Bashir 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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.
Market2 Nov 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Abdullahi Musa 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Idris Bashir 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Rabiu Yusuf
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Rabiu Yusuf wants out of the dugout
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Kano Pillars will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Chiedozie Okorie 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Oct 2026
“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 Kano Pillars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kano Pillars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Abdullahi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tejiri Emonena, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Fabian Nworie 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 Fabian Nworie trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Abuchi Okeke has moved up it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Lius Dadong has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Lius Dadong has written the date down.
Market5 Oct 2026
The name of Mustapha Jawad keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Kano Pillars say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Sep 2026
Chastening afternoon for Kano Pillars
A 0‑4 beating by Rivers United was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 Kano Pillars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The name of Chiedozie Okorie has come up in conversations Kano Pillars were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 13 gone
That is the business done at Kano Pillars until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market7 Sep 2026
The bid was some way short and Kano Pillars did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kano Pillars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Orlando Pirates have kept their man, and Kano Pillars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.