Marked for Leon Ogunjobi
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Apr 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Chinedu Chukwueze
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bendel Insurance lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Apr 2035
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Nasarawa United had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Bendel Insurance did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings9 Apr 2035
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings9 Apr 2035
Terem Sadiq, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.81
A mark of 7.81 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.
Market9 Apr 2035
Leon Ogunjobi hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bendel Insurance can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Apr 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bendel Insurance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Apr 2035
Words at Bendel Insurance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wisdom Udom 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.
The terraces9 Apr 2035
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Kelechi Ebuehi 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.
In brief
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Squad
Ney gets it from the manager
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Player ratings
The referee tires of Odia Uyiosa
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Apr 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Chinedu Chukwueze
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bendel Insurance lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match31 Mar 2035
Beaten 0‑3 by Abia Warriors, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market2 Apr 2035
Only the photograph left for Peter Ademola
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Peter Ademola will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bendel Insurance the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Words at Bendel Insurance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Promise Anyanwu 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.
Squad2 Apr 2035
The manager makes an example of Odia Uyiosa
“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.
Boardroom2 Apr 2035
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Mar 2035
Peter Ademola has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bendel Insurance they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings5 Mar 2035
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match3 Mar 2035
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Bendel Insurance are no longer polite ones.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Kelechi Ebuehi 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.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Wisdom Udom 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.
Player ratings5 Mar 2035
Wisdom Udom was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.49. 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.
Squad5 Mar 2035
A place in the month's best eleven for Chinedu Chukwueze
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Chinedu Chukwueze has come out of that comparison in the side, and Bendel Insurance have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Match3 Mar 2035
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad5 Mar 2035
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 Jan 2035
A 2‑0 win over Barau, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market5 Feb 2035
Only the photograph left for Peter Ademola
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Peter Ademola will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bendel Insurance the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings5 Feb 2035
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Chidozie Osayi-Samuel did not need any: 7.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market5 Feb 2035
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Wisdom Udom in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bendel Insurance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings5 Feb 2035
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Words at Bendel Insurance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Promise Anyanwu 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.
The terraces5 Feb 2035
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Ola Awaziem 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.
Match3 Feb 2035
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match6 Jan 2035
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Kun Khalifat spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings8 Jan 2035
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.28 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market8 Jan 2035
The name of Peter Ademola has come up in conversations Bendel Insurance were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market8 Jan 2035
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom8 Jan 2035
Calvin Ebuehi signs on for the long haul
Bendel Insurance moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Calvin Ebuehi, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Squad8 Jan 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kelechi Ebuehi and Bendel Insurance agree another 3 years.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Wisdom Udom 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.
Boardroom8 Jan 2035
14 academy players handed senior numbers at Bendel Insurance
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Kelechi Ebuehi 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings27 Mar 2034
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market27 Mar 2034
“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 Bendel Insurance, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad27 Mar 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bendel Insurance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market13 Feb 2034
Leon Ogunjobi hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bendel Insurance can pretend not to have heard.
Match11 Feb 2034
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Match11 Feb 2034
A 3‑2 win over Kwara United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad13 Feb 2034
Words at Bendel Insurance training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wisdom Udom 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.
Squad13 Feb 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anthony Cletus, and the manager let it.
Player ratings13 Feb 2034
A performance of 8.61 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings13 Feb 2034
Wisdom Udom was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.56. 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 ratings13 Feb 2034
Zilkifilu Rabiu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. 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.
Squad13 Feb 2034
Nobody at Bendel Insurance 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.