The manager has not finished forgetting Shehu Ekong'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.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. El-Kanemi Warriors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 The request is on a desk at El-Kanemi Warriors, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” El-Kanemi Warriors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oladimeji Dada 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at El-Kanemi Warriors has been clear about where David Joseph stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what El-Kanemi Warriors can pretend not to have heard.
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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.95, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Nnamdi Ogunjobi 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Plateau United in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Oladimeji Dada signs something — a contract at El-Kanemi Warriors or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Nnamdi Ekong
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oladimeji Dada was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nnamdi Ogunjobi and El-Kanemi Warriors agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at El-Kanemi Warriors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Henri Olivier could afford to be generous.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Rivers United.