Marked for Olisa Umar
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Oct 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayelsa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market14 Oct 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Michael Eguavoen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Oct 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Calvin Eguavoen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Oct 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Chidera Babatunde is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Oct 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ikechukwu Sadiq is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Uthman Olawumi 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 dugout14 Oct 2030
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 dugout14 Oct 2030
The manager makes an example of Olisa 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.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
Sheldon Borg 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 Sheldon Borg trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Aug 2030
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bayelsa United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match12 Aug 2030
56 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Boardroom12 Aug 2030
Bayelsa United have received the call every well-run club eventually receives — somebody bigger has noticed Odion Eguavoen. Saying no is easy; keeping him convinced is the actual work.
Market12 Aug 2030
Olisa Umar 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 Bayelsa United can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout12 Aug 2030
This is not rotation. Godswill Kenu has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Bayelsa United is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
The offer went to Rivers United this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Emmanuel Solomon and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nasarawa United have kept their man, and Bayelsa United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market13 May 2030
“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 Bayelsa United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market13 May 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emmanuel Solomon will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bayelsa United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings13 May 2030
Ogheneovowe Erere, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.92
A mark of 7.92 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The dugout13 May 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bayelsa United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom13 May 2030
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Samuel Ebieteli has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad13 May 2030
Nupe Godstime and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 May 2030
Godswill Kenu 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 dugout13 May 2030
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Odion Eguavoen could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Feb 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bayelsa United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market18 Feb 2030
“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.
Transfer targets18 Feb 2030
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Rangers International is saying, and nobody at Bayelsa United is enjoying the guessing.
Squad18 Feb 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayelsa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Match16 Feb 2030
0‑1 to Ikorodu City, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout18 Feb 2030
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Odion Eguavoen after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Godswill Kenu 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.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.