There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Abba Musa is living that version at Metta/LU, and it tends to show in the first month.
Skonto have accepted the money. What Metta/LU do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akintunde Azeez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Metta/LU know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Akintunde Azeez arrives at Metta/LU with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sa'ad Tijjani is living that version at Metta/LU, and it tends to show in the first month.
Eric Oguocha 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.
Metta/LU asked and Jelgava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Metta/LU training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Scremin 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Metta/LU, another week without a signature from Oluwaseun Oladimeji.
Metta/LU had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Liepaja, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Mahamud Abdul Karimu 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nura Dan Megi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Raivis Oss is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nwanna Okechukwu has, at Metta/LU, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Metta/LU know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metta/LU this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Metta/LU, another week without a signature from Nwanna Okechukwu.
Still no offer on the table, and Mahamud Abdul Karimu’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.