The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Barau people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have shaken hands with Rangers International; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Everything agreed with Bendel Insurance, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The offer went to Nasarawa United this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Chukwuma Nwakali 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.
Barau asked and Enyimba said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marked 6.67 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Barau 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 The request is on a desk at Barau, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Remo Stars have kept their man, and Barau go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Thabiso Msele 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.
22 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 Barau can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Barau have done the hard part with Remo Stars, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Chukwuma Nwakali 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shooting Stars have kept their man, and Barau go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
18 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 Barau can pretend not to have heard.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
0‑3 to Kun Khalifat, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Mar 2033
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Barau 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.
0‑3 against Bendel Insurance, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Barau can tell you which week it ends in.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Barau, another week without a signature from Thabiso Msele.
In brief
The dugoutShehu Amoo has become a man the manager trusts