The Shooting Stars Gazette
Market1 Nov 2027
Abiodun Adegoke 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 Shooting Stars can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Lucky Emmanuel frozen out at Shooting Stars
This is not rotation. Lucky Emmanuel has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Shooting Stars is pretending otherwise.
Squad1 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Shooting Stars
Handsome Surveyor and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Shooting Stars
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Temple Emekayi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Moruf Umar pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Lucky Emmanuel without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Lucky Emmanuel was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Lucky Emmanuel 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 Lucky Emmanuel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad1 Nov 2027
The armband comes off Abiodun Adegoke
Shooting Stars will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Ismail Ayodele has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Shooting Stars will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
- Market Abiodun Adegoke linked with a move away
- Boardroom Shooting Stars answer back
- Boardroom The Shooting Stars production line keeps running