Marked for Sam Smith
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Oct 2028
Jude Mamman has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Barau they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Barau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uzochukwu Ezeobi 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 Oct 2028
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
When it matters, Godwin Akpo plays
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 Oct 2028
Hilary Ekawu 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 Hilary Ekawu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market16 Oct 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market16 Oct 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Barau know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market16 Oct 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Joseph Kemin may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Boardroom16 Oct 2028
The Barau production line keeps running
23 graduates out of an academy now rated 7 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Aug 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Barau, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Aug 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Barau have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
Burreli have made their interest known and Barau have to have a conversation they never wanted. A manager other clubs ask about is a manager whose next contract costs more.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
The manager makes an example of Joseph Atule
“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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Tempers go at Barau
Adamu Umar 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.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.50 on the card, and the Barau support went home talking about one name.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
A loan enquiry to Remo Stars: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Match26 Aug 2028
It needed Abdulmajid Aminu to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Kano Pillars, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
Ahmadu Liman has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Barau 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Aug 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Barau have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match19 Aug 2028
Barau taken apart
0‑3 to Bayelsa United, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
$140.0K settles it between the clubs for Samuel Ezekiel
Ikorodu City have accepted the money. What Barau do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market21 Aug 2028
Jude Mamman 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 Barau can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Sam Smith arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Sam Smith has, at Barau, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
“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.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
Nobody left the Barau dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Loan watch21 Aug 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Barau, and 5 appearances in 28 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Kenneth Obi left the room before anybody could ask which.