“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Joshua Tenkorang and El-Kanemi Warriors agree another 2 years.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Plateau United have kept their man, and El-Kanemi Warriors go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
El-Kanemi Warriors have made the call to Rivers United. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tylon Smith trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout28 Jan 2036
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Henri Olivier chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around El-Kanemi Warriors people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have shaken hands with Kwara United; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 The request is on a desk at El-Kanemi Warriors, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
Player ratings14 Jan 2036
Risilanu Ismail was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at El-Kanemi Warriors, another week without a signature from Tylon Smith.
It needed Risilanu Ismail to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Ikorodu City, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Odion Akinola and El-Kanemi Warriors agree another 3 years.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
The manager has not finished forgetting Shehu Ekong'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.
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 William Dennis is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at El-Kanemi Warriors. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 48 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The hardest thing about being 16 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Calvin Olayinka did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at El-Kanemi Warriors, another week without a signature from Tylon Smith.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Peter Musa and El-Kanemi Warriors agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Olisa Ademola is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Tochukwu Ogbadibo.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Sideeq Habeeb has, at El-Kanemi Warriors, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tochukwu Ogbadibo and El-Kanemi Warriors agree another 3 years.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. El-Kanemi Warriors will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at El-Kanemi Warriors, another week without a signature from Sideeq Habeeb.
Samuel Omeruo is 18, and El-Kanemi Warriors have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
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.
A new face in his position, and Simon Ademola suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. El-Kanemi Warriors have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
355 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
The deal with Nasarawa United is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saagui Dzenyagha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
Something was said to Simon Ademola and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at El-Kanemi Warriors, another week without a signature from Simon Ademola.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Terem Ejuke
Simon Ademola, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.79
A mark of 7.79 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saagui Dzenyagha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Godspower Akekoromowei. 2‑0 against Plateau United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8.16. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
Risilanu Ismail was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ademola Chukwueze and El-Kanemi Warriors agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Risilanu Ismail provided it, and the 9.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saagui Dzenyagha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at El-Kanemi Warriors 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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Risilanu Ismail has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saagui Dzenyagha signs something — a contract at El-Kanemi Warriors or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.” Peter Musa and El-Kanemi Warriors agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at El-Kanemi Warriors has been clear about where Ademola Abacha stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. El-Kanemi Warriors know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saagui Dzenyagha 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Odion Collins has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Abdullahi Omeruo has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ahmed Lawal has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jamilu Abdullahi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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 Mohammed Faisal is on it.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The dugout6 Nov 2034
The manager has not finished forgetting Abraham Collins'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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Remo Stars have kept their man, and El-Kanemi Warriors go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
0‑1 to Plateau United, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout18 Sep 2034
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 0‑1 Henri Olivier left the room before anybody could ask which.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Joshua Obafemi and El-Kanemi Warriors agree another 3 years.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“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 El-Kanemi Warriors, and it is not being withdrawn.
El-Kanemi Warriors 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saagui Dzenyagha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
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.