Marked for Chisom Casmir
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2037
“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.
Market24 Aug 2037
Enyimba say no — this time
The offer from Barau for Chisom Casmir was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad24 Aug 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Enyimba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2037
Nupe Godstime is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.46 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings24 Aug 2037
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match22 Aug 2037
Kwara United made Enyimba work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings24 Aug 2037
A performance of 9.01 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings24 Aug 2037
Ninety minutes of Nupe Godstime at his very best
Marked 8.96. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Enyimba.
Squad24 Aug 2037
Words at Enyimba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goodluck Nkemakolam 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match13 Jul 2037
Enyimba are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 68 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match11 Jul 2037
Enyimba cannot stop winning
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market13 Jul 2037
“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 The request is on a desk at Enyimba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings13 Jul 2037
Defensive actions: 26, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings13 Jul 2037
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market13 Jul 2037
Enyimba say no — this time
The offer from Barau for Chisom Casmir was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market13 Jul 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Enyimba is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Jul 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emmanuel Solomon and Enyimba agree another 4 years.
Squad13 Jul 2037
Emmanuel Ugwu 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings6 Jul 2037
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match4 Jul 2037
Enyimba cannot stop winning
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad6 Jul 2037
164 appearances across 10 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Enyimba know what they have.
Player ratings6 Jul 2037
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market6 Jul 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Enyimba can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Jul 2037
Defences have started doubling up on Sunday Aniebet
12 goals and a season average of 7.55 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad6 Jul 2037
Sunday Aniebet 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.
Squad6 Jul 2037
“The easiest signature of my career.” Emmanuel Ugwu and Enyimba agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings6 Jul 2037
A defender's afternoon for Emmanuel Ugwu
Defensive actions: 24. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad29 Jun 2037
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings29 Jun 2037
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.05, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad29 Jun 2037
David Eke keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Enyimba may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match27 Jun 2037
Nobody wants to play Enyimba right now
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Market29 Jun 2037
Kelvin Ogunga 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 Enyimba can pretend not to have heard.
Market29 Jun 2037
Enyimba say no — this time
The offer from Katsina United for Ademola Umar was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad29 Jun 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Enyimba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Jun 2037
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for Enyimba. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad29 Jun 2037
Nupe Godstime is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.48 with 9 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.