“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rangers International can pretend not to have heard.
Ganiyu Gberefu 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.
Rangers International asked and Sparta Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jamilu Iwobi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Nobody at Rangers International 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 dugout8 Sep 2031
The manager has not finished forgetting Peter Ogunjobi'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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bayelsa United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rangers International is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rangers International can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hammarby have kept their man, and Rangers International go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Rangers International have made the call to Remo Stars. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rangers International people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 The request is on a desk at Rangers International, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rangers International they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Hilary Gong 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Oleksandriya have kept their man, and Rangers International go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Rangers International and Nasarawa United have settled on $210.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The name of Issa Yusuf has come up in conversations Rangers International were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The offer from Ashanti Gold for Domnan Panse 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.
Hilary Gong 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.
Rangers International asked and Rivers United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rangers International people have started saying his name in the past tense.
$4.9M on the table at Remo Stars. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer from Barau for Peter Ogunjobi 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rangers International this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Rangers International 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.
“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 Rangers International, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rangers International is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sparta Prague have kept their man, and Rangers International go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Peter Ogunjobi again, and this time the name on the line is Barau. Rangers International are listening politely and promising nothing.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oche Babatunde and Rangers International agree another 4 years.
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Rangers International had all but put away. Nasarawa United will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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 Rangers International this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 13, 24 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Abraham Onyekuru after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Rangers International 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.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Emmanuel Jesam decided otherwise. Shooting Stars had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rangers International is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ganiyu Gberefu 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Marked 8.26 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
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.” Abraham Onyekuru, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Ganiyu Gberefu 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.
“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.
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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Emmanuel Jesam has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ifeanyi Assurance signs something — a contract at Rangers International or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rangers International is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A 2‑1 win over Ikorodu City, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Abraham Onyekuru kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Rangers International 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dieu Ne Dort Adjini Avama 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Domnan Panse will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rangers International the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ganiyu Gberefu 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.
Rangers International asked and Magdeburg 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Samuel Akpan and Rangers International agree another 4 years.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Abraham Onyekuru after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Rangers International has been clear about where Chukwueze Awaziem stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Peter Ogunjobi
The dugoutErnest Bukari knocks on the manager's door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rangers International they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Hilary Gong 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Oscar Akpan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Etebo Adeleye is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Peter Ogunjobi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“The easiest signature of my career.” John Moffi and Rangers International agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.