The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rivers United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rivers United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tobi Alagbe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Rivers United 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Rivers United are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
27 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ebube Duru was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The new man at Rivers United has worked with Ibrahim Obansa before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Nobody at Rivers United 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rivers United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rivers United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Shola Ogundana 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.
The new man at Rivers United has worked with Ibrahim Obansa before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Maclyn Biokpo Jenewari is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joshua Baba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Prince Ukachukwu signs something — a contract at Rivers United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Rivers United will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Rivers United. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A few words of the language, a friend at the next peg, and a training ground that has stopped feeling foreign. Nothing measurable, and everything visible on Saturdays.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Handsome Surveyor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rivers United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Shola Ogundana 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Ebube Duru 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.
The new man at Rivers United has worked with Ibrahim Obansa before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rivers United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutSamuel Ezekiel asks for a word with the manager
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rivers United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Shola Ogundana 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Patrick Mohammed has just signed for Rivers United, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Rivers United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ebube Duru 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.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The new man at Rivers United has worked with Ibrahim Obansa before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Nobody at Rivers United 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
The dugoutJoshua Baba knocks on the manager's door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around WAFA they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Samuel Addo 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Adjei 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Christian Kudus signs something — a contract at WAFA or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. WAFA have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. WAFA will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout17 Jan 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 2‑3 Bernard Inusah left the room before anybody could ask which.