Marked for Michael Umar
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Nov 2033
Only the photograph left for Joshua Onyeka
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joshua Onyeka will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Remo Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market21 Nov 2033
“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 The request is on a desk at Remo Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Nov 2033
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Etebo Ihenacho is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Nov 2033
Nnamdi Ogunjobi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Nov 2033
Words at Remo Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Trezeguet Salah 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 dugout21 Nov 2033
Adama Goïta gets picked when it counts
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 Adama Goïta is on it.
The dugout21 Nov 2033
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market21 Nov 2033
The Ehije Ukaki story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ehije Ukaki signs something — a contract at Remo Stars or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout21 Nov 2033
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Remo Stars. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout7 Nov 2033
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market7 Nov 2033
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Remo Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad7 Nov 2033
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Remo Stars know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad7 Nov 2033
Adama Goïta 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.
Squad7 Nov 2033
Aka David 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 Remo Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout7 Nov 2033
Antonio Galeano has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Remo Stars 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 dugout7 Nov 2033
The manager makes an example of Aka David
“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.
Squad7 Nov 2033
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Remo Stars would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Market7 Nov 2033
Remo Stars have let the market know Joshua Onyeka can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Oct 2033
Only the photograph left for Joshua Onyeka
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joshua Onyeka will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Remo Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market24 Oct 2033
“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 Remo Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Oct 2033
Words at Remo Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adama Goïta 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.
Squad24 Oct 2033
Michael 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.
Squad24 Oct 2033
The medical room confirms 27 days on the sidelines for Samuel Omeruo, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad24 Oct 2033
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stephen Adeleye and Remo Stars agree another 3 years.
The dugout24 Oct 2033
The manager makes an example of Michael Umar
“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.
The dugout24 Oct 2033
When it matters, Adama Goïta plays
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.
The dugout24 Oct 2033
Joshua Onyeka knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joshua Onyeka trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 Sep 2033
22 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Market19 Sep 2033
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Antonio Galeano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Remo Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout19 Sep 2033
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings19 Sep 2033
A defender's goal wins it for Remo Stars — 7.92
1 for Ehije Ukaki, marked 7.92, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Player ratings19 Sep 2033
Rezk Basha pops up at the right end — 7.73
7.73, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad19 Sep 2033
Trezeguet Salah and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Sep 2033
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad19 Sep 2033
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” William Madu commits to Remo Stars for another 3 years.
The dugout19 Sep 2033
Ehije Ukaki gets picked when it counts
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 Ehije Ukaki is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Jul 2033
Remo Stars throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Bendel Insurance the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Remo Stars will enjoy reviewing.
Market1 Aug 2033
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Remo Stars people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad1 Aug 2033
The match ball belongs to Abdoulaye Yahaya, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market1 Aug 2033
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad1 Aug 2033
22 goals and a season average of 7.30. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings1 Aug 2033
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market1 Aug 2033
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Remo Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 Aug 2033
Michael Umar is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad1 Aug 2033
Adama Goïta 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.