Simon Umar

Right Back - Barau
19 Sep 2038
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Marked for Simon Umar

631 Edition

The Barau Courier

30 Aug 2038
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces30 Aug 2038

Anger at Barau spills outside the ground

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.

Match28 Aug 2038

Chastening afternoon for Barau

A 1‑4 beating by Kwara United was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Squad30 Aug 2038

A fracture rules Stephen Ebuehi out for 83 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Barau will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match28 Aug 2038

7 matches without a win for Barau

The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Barau are no longer polite ones.

Boardroom30 Aug 2038

The silence upstairs is getting loud at Barau

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Market30 Aug 2038

Chinedu Olayinka asks to leave Barau

“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.

Squad30 Aug 2038

Chibuikem Obiezechukwu 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 Barau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings30 Aug 2038

Ibrahim Yahaya runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Boardroom30 Aug 2038

Nobody left the Barau dressing room in a hurry

The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.

In brief

Back issues
621 Edition

The Barau Courier

21 Jun 2038
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad21 Jun 2038

Michael Obi keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Barau may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Player ratings21 Jun 2038

Age has not caught Usman Maidubuji yet — 7.90

At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Squad21 Jun 2038

Tempers go at Barau

Ibrahim Yahaya 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.

Player ratings21 Jun 2038

Chibuikem Obiezechukwu was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.84. 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.

Match19 Jun 2038

Barau get the job done against Niger Tornadoes

A 1‑0 win over Niger Tornadoes, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Squad21 Jun 2038

When it matters, Ibrahim Yahaya 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.

Squad21 Jun 2038

The manager makes an example of Simon 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.

Player ratings21 Jun 2038

A defender's afternoon for Onyekachi Thompson

Defensive actions: 13. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.

Player ratings21 Jun 2038

Crisconti Larry could have had three

8 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.

In brief

612 Edition

The Barau Courier

19 Apr 2038
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match17 Apr 2038

The wait goes on for Barau

5 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.

Player ratings19 Apr 2038

Ibrahim Yahaya runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad19 Apr 2038

Chibuikem Obiezechukwu 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 Barau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match17 Apr 2038

Chibuikem Obiezechukwu’s goal not enough for Barau

Chibuikem Obiezechukwu scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Kwara United, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

Player ratings19 Apr 2038

One of those days for Chibuikem Obiezechukwu

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.35, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Squad19 Apr 2038

Ibrahim Yahaya has become a man the manager trusts

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.

Squad19 Apr 2038

The manager makes an example of Chukwueze Ekong

“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.

Squad19 Apr 2038

Words at Barau training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Islam Benrahma 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.

Player ratings19 Apr 2038

Ebere Okereke leaves them behind him

Shots: 5. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.

In brief

564 Edition

The Barau Courier

18 May 2037
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad18 May 2037

Bismark Duah breaks a bone — 108 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Match16 May 2037

No end in sight to Barau's wait for a win

10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Barau has to find a result from somewhere.

Match18 May 2037

Every point is an argument now for Barau

Position 20 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.

Squad18 May 2037

Simon Umar: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Barau have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Match16 May 2037

The goals have deserted Barau

5 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.

Player ratings18 May 2037

Nothing got past Usman Maidubuji

Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.

Squad18 May 2037

Tempers go at Barau

Chibuikem Obiezechukwu 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.

Squad18 May 2037

Osayi Collins stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Osayi Collins and Barau agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Player ratings18 May 2037

Chibuikem Obiezechukwu runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

In brief