The Bendel Insurance Post
Squad3 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Chidi Akuneto
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bendel Insurance lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market3 Jan 2028
Stanley Okorom 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 Bendel Insurance can pretend not to have heard.
Market3 Jan 2028
Kano Pillars join the queue for Wisdom Udom
Add another name to the list: Kano Pillars have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Wisdom Udom. The answer from Bendel Insurance has not changed — yet.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Nobody could get near Tobi Ige
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Tempers go at Bendel Insurance
Oke Kayode 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.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Graduation day at Bendel Insurance
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Saturday Erimuya 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.
Market3 Jan 2028
Daniel Balogun steps up from the Bendel Insurance academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Daniel Balogun 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.
Market3 Jan 2028
Bendel Insurance promote Akinkunmi Ekong from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Akinkunmi Ekong 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.
In brief
- Match Bendel Insurance come up short against Kun Khalifat
- Squad Ibrahim Sabiu gets it from the manager
- Player ratings Julius Emiloju Junior spends the afternoon fouling