Marked for Ibrahim Ogunjobi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout29 Oct 2029
“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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kano Pillars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at Kano Pillars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Agu 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 dugout29 Oct 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout29 Oct 2029
Serge Obassa gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
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.
Market29 Oct 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Auwalu Ali Malam signs something — a contract at Kano Pillars or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Ayuba Mukhtar has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Kano Pillars will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Squad29 Oct 2029
The comeback date has moved again: another 0 days for Mustapha Jawad, and a schedule the medical staff have stopped putting in writing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Oct 2028
Abdullahi Musa 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Ali Abdullahi 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 dugout30 Oct 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout30 Oct 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
Abuchi Okeke has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kano Pillars will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market30 Oct 2028
The shop window has Muttaka Musa in it
Kano Pillars have let the market know Muttaka Musa can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match18 Sep 2028
Full time on the season at Kano Pillars
Position 12 on 49 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Ayuba Mukhtar, 20, steals the show — 7.61
Marked 7.61 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market18 Sep 2028
“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.
Market18 Sep 2028
Only the photograph left for Muttaka Musa
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Muttaka Musa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kano Pillars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Abdullahi Musa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Uche Moses runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Abdullahi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market18 Sep 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Anthony Balogun 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.
Market18 Sep 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ibrahim Ogunjobi 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.