Marked for Patrick Ayumba
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Nov 2032
A fracture rules Salisu Adamu out for 43 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bidco United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Nov 2032
Caleb Omondi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market1 Nov 2032
“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.
The dugout1 Nov 2032
The manager has not finished forgetting Michael Mwendwa's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Market1 Nov 2032
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lungelo Kunene signs something — a contract at Bidco United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad1 Nov 2032
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Oct 2031
31 days out for Michael Mwendwa after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bidco United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad20 Oct 2031
Caleb Omondi in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bidco United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Oct 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Izzadin Juma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Oct 2031
“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.
Squad20 Oct 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Collins Masika and Bidco United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market20 Oct 2031
The name of Lungelo Kunene keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Bidco United say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Sep 2031
Marcus Hill has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bidco United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Caleb Omondi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match13 Sep 2031
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market15 Sep 2031
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nicholas Mainge is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market15 Sep 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Victor Chemelil has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market15 Sep 2031
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Brian Wanyama has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout15 Sep 2031
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad15 Sep 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Patrick Ayumba and Bidco United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout15 Sep 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicholas Manyama, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 Feb 2031
9 matches without a win for Bidco United
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Bidco United are no longer polite ones.
Match1 Feb 2031
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Christopher Raila will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Bidco United escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The dugout3 Feb 2031
“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.
Market3 Feb 2031
“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 Bidco United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Window shuts: 5 in, 5 out at Bidco United
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad3 Feb 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bidco United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
5 academy graduates step up at Bidco United
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Transfer targets3 Feb 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Words at Bidco United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Izzadin Juma 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.