42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shooting Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Abubakar Taheer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Shooting Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muyiwa Balogun 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.
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 Ismail Ayodele is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mustapha Lawal signs something — a contract at Shooting Stars or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
70 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shooting Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Shooting Stars, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Shooting Stars 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.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Isaac Umar'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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mustapha Lawal signs something — a contract at Shooting Stars or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Shooting Stars that is a harder question to answer.
100 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shooting Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Solomon Odoemenam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Shooting Stars will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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 Jamiu Amusat is on it.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Isaac Umar 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tunde Azeez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Shooting Stars are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
A first appearance Isaac Umar will want to forget — 4.14
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 4.14, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
“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 Shooting Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shooting Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.