“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wikki Tourists can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Wikki Tourists they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wikki Tourists can pretend not to have heard.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Wikki Tourists has been clear about where Mahmood Aliyu stands, which is more than many ever get.
The shirt still fits. Chukwuma Onyekuru is back at Wikki Tourists, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
The shirt still fits. Abraham Lawal is back at Wikki Tourists, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Abdullahi Usman has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Wikki Tourists, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Abubakar Taheer plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Wikki Tourists have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Wikki Tourists have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Wikki Tourists have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abubakar Taheer and Wikki Tourists agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Wikki Tourists have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Wikki Tourists, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wikki Tourists can pretend not to have heard.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Wikki Tourists, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Wikki Tourists have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Ishah Abubakar arrives at Wikki Tourists with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
The deal that would have taken Usman Abba to Kun Khalifat has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Wikki Tourists with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Every debut is a small story about the future: Idriss Ashiru, 20 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
Asked to play a role that is not his, or taken off before the hour once too often — Shuaibu Ibrahim has let it be known that he does not like the way Wikki Tourists are using him. Managers hear this long before the press does.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Wikki Tourists, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Wikki Tourists they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Chizoba Okoh: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Bayelsa United go through and Wikki Tourists go home, 0-0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Wikki Tourists they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Chizoba Okoh knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Wikki Tourists, and both men came out saying it was fine.
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
In brief
The terracesThe press have found their man in Shuaibu Ibrahim
The name of Usman Abba has come up in conversations Wikki Tourists were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.