The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Kano Pillars people have started saying his name in the past tense.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“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 The request is on a desk at Kano Pillars, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Wikki Tourists for Samuel Ejuke was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Mustapha Umar 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 easiest signature of my career.” Abdussalam Magashy and Kano Pillars agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Efa Enabulele was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kano Pillars can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kano Pillars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. WSG Tirol have kept their man, and Kano Pillars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Efa Enabulele 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Kano Pillars people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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.
Kano Pillars asked and Maccabi Haifa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.82 on the card, and the Kano Pillars support went home talking about one name.
The dugout28 Jun 2032
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 Ugochukwu David is on it.
At 18 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Ugochukwu David is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Plateau United in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Lekan Malik 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Umar Balogun has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Umar Balogun had Kano Pillars level again within 3 minutes, and Abia Warriors never got to play with a lead at all.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad10 May 2032
A Kano Pillars teenager takes the young player award
Umar Balogun is 18, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kano Pillars will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Words at Kano Pillars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Efa Enabulele 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kano Pillars know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ebere Onyeka trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Mustapha Umar 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kano Pillars know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kano Pillars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kano Pillars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kano Pillars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kano Pillars can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Efa Enabulele was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michael Chukwudi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 116 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kano Pillars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Aminu Mohammed 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.
A loan enquiry to Rangers International: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aminu Mohammed will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kano Pillars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Efa Enabulele was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1‑2 to Enyimba, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Words at Kano Pillars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Efa Enabulele 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 run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
11 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Mustapha Umar 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.
6 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Kano Pillars is running low.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Najib Yusuf is living that version at Kano Pillars, and it tends to show in the first month.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fabrice Ndeh Nsoh and Kano Pillars agree another 3 years.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
The manager has not finished forgetting Joseph Balogun'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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kano Pillars, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Mustapha Umar 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.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Efa Enabulele 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 easiest signature of my career.” Michael Wairimu and Kano Pillars agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Kano Pillars are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Shedrack Asiegbu signs something — a contract at Kano Pillars or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Abdussalam Magashy arrives at Kano Pillars with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Mustapha Umar 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.
Squad18 Nov 2030
7 new faces, and Kano Pillars are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Shedrack Asiegbu signs something — a contract at Kano Pillars or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ola Obi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kano Pillars can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdul-Aziz Nurudeen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kano Pillars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Shedrack Asiegbu and Kano Pillars agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kano Pillars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kano Pillars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kano Pillars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kano Pillars can pretend not to have heard.
Mustapha Umar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
The manager has not finished forgetting Joseph Balogun'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 Lekan Malik signs something — a contract at Kano Pillars or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kano Pillars, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kano Pillars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Aminu Mohammed 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.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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.