Marked for Frank Iheanacho
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 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 The request is on a desk at Nasarawa United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Sep 2028
14 days out for Frank Iheanacho after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nasarawa United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Umar Ada and Nasarawa United agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Umar Ada and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chisom Orji was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market11 Sep 2028
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Awal Auta 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 dugout11 Sep 2028
Abubakar Abdullahi is still being punished for one mistake
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.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Sunday Dapma gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sunday Dapma is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Sep 2028
“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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
A fracture rules Frank Iheanacho out for 21 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nasarawa United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market4 Sep 2028
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Plateau United had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad4 Sep 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Segun Adekunle commits to Nasarawa United for another 4 years.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Umar Ada in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nasarawa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
This is not rotation. Gozie Umeh has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Nasarawa United is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
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.
Match2 Sep 2028
A 2‑1 win over Katsina United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Aug 2028
“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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market28 Aug 2028
Terms done: Luka Ngwei is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Warri Wolves waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nasarawa United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Umar Ada 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.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Emmanuel Utaka has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Nasarawa United is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Izuchuckwu Chimezie was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
A loan enquiry to Ikorodu City: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Aug 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market21 Aug 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Nasarawa United people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market21 Aug 2028
“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 targets21 Aug 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nasarawa United have done the hard part with Ikorodu City, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
Nasarawa United asked and Remo Stars said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
Nasarawa United have gone to Warri Wolves 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Umar Ada 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.
Match19 Aug 2028
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad14 Aug 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match12 Aug 2028
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Nasarawa United have 5 straight wins of it.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
$240.0K settles it between the clubs for Otutu Young
Bayelsa United have accepted the money. What Nasarawa United do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Umar Ada and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market14 Aug 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Nasarawa United have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The terraces14 Aug 2028
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match12 Aug 2028
A 1‑0 win over El-Kanemi Warriors, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad14 Aug 2028
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Nasarawa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Chisom Orji 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.