$12.0K settles it between the clubs for Chisom Chiaha
Remo Stars have accepted the money. What Bayelsa United do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bayelsa United can pretend not to have heard.
Kenneth Sheddy 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
A loan enquiry to Plateau United: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
The dugoutOdion Nwakali dropped after a run of poor form
4 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bayelsa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Half the programme played, position 16, 18 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
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.
The dugout17 May 2032
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 0‑5 Odion Eguavoen left the room before anybody could ask which.
Beaten 5 times, with 3 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shodeinde Moses was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Adebayo Chukwueze and Bayelsa United agree another 3 years.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Odion Eguavoen to a room that had heard them before.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Shodeinde Moses and Bayelsa United agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Shodeinde Moses 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 7.03, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Nupe Godstime is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Apr 2032
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.” Odion Eguavoen chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Peter Iheanacho knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bayelsa United have done the hard part with Rangers International, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Don-Pedro Samuel, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Jan 2032
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Odion Eguavoen to a room that had heard them before.