Wisdom Faruk

Goalkeeper - Pyunik
25 May 2032
Tuesday
Process
Overview Personal Contract News 5 Transfers Relations Events 129 Awards 4 Matches History

Marked for Wisdom Faruk

296 Edition

The Pyunik Chronicle

29 Mar 2032
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad29 Mar 2032

Bohdan Biloshevskyi breaks a bone — 24 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market29 Mar 2032

Petros Movsisyan 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 Pyunik can pretend not to have heard.

The dugout29 Mar 2032

Wisdom Faruk keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Pyunik may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad29 Mar 2032

Words exchanged at Pyunik

Henri Avagyan 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.

Squad29 Mar 2032

Words at Pyunik training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Barroso 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.

Squad29 Mar 2032

Home is on Alain Bikoe Mongo's mind

“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Pyunik are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

The dugout29 Mar 2032

Taiye Murtala 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.

Match27 Mar 2032

Two points walk out of the ground

Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Pyunik had all but put away. Shirak will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.

Match27 Mar 2032

Pyunik and Shirak take a point apiece

It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

In brief

Back issues
279 Edition

The Pyunik Chronicle

1 Dec 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad1 Dec 2031

Henri Avagyan damages knee ligaments — 76 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 76 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.

Match28 Nov 2031

A European lesson for Pyunik

0‑2 against Moreirense. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.

Match28 Nov 2031

The wait goes on for Pyunik

7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Squad1 Dec 2031

Wisdom Faruk keeps Pyunik in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Match28 Nov 2031

6 matches without a goal for Pyunik

The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.

Market1 Dec 2031

Pyunik may not be able to give Michel what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Michel wants continental football; whether Pyunik can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad1 Dec 2031

Words exchanged at Pyunik

Henri Avagyan 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.

Boardroom1 Dec 2031

Belts tighten at Pyunik

The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.

Squad1 Dec 2031

Words at Pyunik training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Barroso 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.

In brief

  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • The dugout Vlad Chatunts left out for the big one
  • The dugout When it matters, Henri Avagyan plays
213 Edition

The Abia Warriors Post

26 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad26 Aug 2030

A knee injury of the worst kind for Suraj Ayeleso

81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Abia Warriors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Player ratings26 Aug 2030

Nobody could get near Chidiebere Nnachi

Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Transfer targets26 Aug 2030

Door shut on Wisdom Faruk

Abia Warriors asked and Rangers International said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Match24 Aug 2030

Abia Warriors see off Katsina United

Three points for Abia Warriors, 2‑0 the final word against Katsina United in a contest settled by the finer margins.

The dugout26 Aug 2030

The team sheet said everything about Eshimitu Gomino Eya

Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Eshimitu Gomino Eya.

Player ratings26 Aug 2030

Nobody on the pitch touched Chukwuemeka Obioma

7.80, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Abia Warriors had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.

Transfer targets26 Aug 2030

Abia Warriors ask about Akam Moses

A loan enquiry to Warri Wolves: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

The dugout26 Aug 2030

The view from the dugout

“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Kelechi Omeruo, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.

The dugout26 Aug 2030

No hiding place for David Osamuyimen

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Osamuyimen, and the manager let it.

In brief

210 Edition

The Rangers International Courier

5 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad5 Aug 2030

Defences have started doubling up on Chinedu Onyinjekwu

44 goals and a season average of 7.82 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Market5 Aug 2030

Terms done: Kelechi Ekong is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kun Khalifat waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rangers International is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market5 Aug 2030

Wisdom Faruk 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 Rangers International can pretend not to have heard.

Market5 Aug 2030

Rangers International say no — this time

The offer from Bendel Insurance for Tijani Adeloju 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.

Transfer targets5 Aug 2030

Ridwan Sanusi due for a Rangers International medical

Everything agreed with Astra, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Transfer targets5 Aug 2030

Alex Oyowah will not be coming to Rangers International

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Rivers United is saying, and nobody at Rangers International is enjoying the guessing.

Squad5 Aug 2030

Tempers go at Rangers International

Lucky Jimoh 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.

Boardroom5 Aug 2030

Uche Moses will join Rangers International for nothing

The paperwork is done long before the player is. Uche Moses has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rangers International have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.

Squad5 Aug 2030

Semeu Commey 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.

In brief

209 Edition

The Rangers International Courier

29 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad29 Jul 2030

Chinedu Onyinjekwu is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.81 with 43 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Market29 Jul 2030

Uzoma Chinonso asks to leave Rangers International

“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.

Player ratings29 Jul 2030

Daniel Eni runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market29 Jul 2030

Terms done: Kelechi Ekong is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Enyimba waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rangers International is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market29 Jul 2030

Waheed Adebayo has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rangers International they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Match27 Jul 2030

Rangers International make it 4 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Rangers International have 4 straight wins of it.

Market29 Jul 2030

Rangers International say no — this time

The offer from Chippa United for Wisdom Faruk 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.

Boardroom29 Jul 2030

Rangers International to lose Luka Ngwei for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Luka Ngwei has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.

Squad29 Jul 2030

Words exchanged at Rangers International

Chinedu Onyinjekwu 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.

In brief