Waliu Ojetoye 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Warri Wolves will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
Up for the corner, and Joshua Musa delivers — 7.51
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Joshua Musa scored, was marked 7.51, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Henry Chukwueze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Warri Wolves the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdullahi Ajayi and Warri Wolves agree another 3 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clock did what Ikorodu City would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Words at Warri Wolves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Seth Mayi 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
0‑3 to Kwara United, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The offer from Barau for Oghenekaro Aribo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Waliu Ojetoye 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pedro Soares after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Warri Wolves, and both men came out saying it was fine.