The Bendel Insurance Post
Squad28 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Bendel Insurance
Oke Kayode 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.
Market28 Dec 2026
Kelvin Akinmola comes back from a loan that worked
17 appearances and 11 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Chinedu Nwosu 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Emmanuel Akpan signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emmanuel Akpan and Bendel Insurance agree another 4 years.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Oke Kayode 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 Oke Kayode trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Elmer Arunta
“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.
In brief
- The dugout Chizoba Amaefule gets picked when it counts
- Squad “I want to play”: Elmer Arunta speaks
- The dugout The manager makes Isaac Omijie a promise