Marked for Michael Eguavoen
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Michael Eguavoen
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kano Pillars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market16 Aug 2027
Umar Muhammad 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 Kano Pillars can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
An offer of $320.0K for Lekan Malik
Kano Pillars have gone to Remo Stars with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Mustapha 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Kano Pillars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Musa 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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
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.
Match14 Aug 2027
Warri Wolves left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Gabriel Collins to a room that had heard them before.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Al Wahda have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Aug 2027
Michael Eguavoen damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
The match ball belongs to Aminu Mohammed, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
No sign of nerves from Mustapha Umar at 21 — 7.66
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mustapha Umar did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market9 Aug 2027
“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 Kano Pillars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Up for the corner, and Aminu Sani delivers — 7.52
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Aminu Sani scored, was marked 7.52, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market9 Aug 2027
Add another name to the list: PWD Bamenda have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Aminu Mohammed. The answer from Kano Pillars has not changed — yet.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Aminu Sani commits to Kano Pillars for another 3 years.
Match7 Aug 2027
7 matches without a win, and then this, against Rangers International. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Michael Eguavoen
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kano Pillars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market2 Aug 2027
“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.
Match31 Jul 2027
7 matches without a win for Kano Pillars
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Kano Pillars are no longer polite ones.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
The deal with Beitar Jerusalem is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Aminu Mohammed 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Kano Pillars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Musa 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 dugout2 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Mustapha Umar
“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.
Match31 Jul 2027
Kwara United left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and PWD Bamenda waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kano Pillars is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad26 Jul 2027
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kano Pillars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market26 Jul 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market26 Jul 2027
Aminu Sani has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kano Pillars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match24 Jul 2027
6 matches without a win for Kano Pillars
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Kano Pillars are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Mustapha Umar, 21, steals the show — 7.84
Marked 7.84 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market26 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Ali Abdullahi 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
$8.0K was the most the club would pay and Rangers International were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.