Good day All.
Our comedy of a football club continues to sink into new depths of caricature with every passing day.
Yesterday, we travelled to Minna to face Niger Tornadoes. After an uneventful first half, we emerged for the second half only to deliver our now-customary away performance: concede goals, lose control, and eventually lose 2–0. Script followed. Curtains drawn.
On paper, losing away from home in this league is hardly shocking. Look across town — Abia Warriors lost 2–1 at home to Nasarawa United. The difference, however, is context. Coach Imama has built enough credit from his team’s impressive away form that one bad result will not cause sleepless nights. He has earned patience.
Back to Enyimba.
That defeat in Minna triggered the familiar reflex reaction. Coach Deji Ayeni was shown the door. Apparently, many never welcomed his appointment in the first place, and after just six games, management decided they had seen enough. Knee-jerk. Again.
I feel sad for him. But more importantly, I feel sad for what this club has become.
After the mess of last season with Stanley Eguma, management practically begged him to continue. The results were entirely predictable. The new season barely started before the same old problems resurfaced. Eventually, he was fired — or “asked to step aside,” depending on which version you prefer. What followed was months of drama over unpaid entitlements, stalled negotiations, and a contract dispute that dragged on far longer than it should have. Only after a payment plan agreeable to the Rivers man was reached did he finally vacate his post and his apartment.
Deji Ayeni’s brief reign at least showed something different from what Eguma served up. The football had more intent. The attack looked livelier. But bad habits are stubborn things. Away points remained elusive, and a disappointing home draw was all management needed to start searching for the next fall guy.
This feels painfully familiar. Coach Yema all over again.
I don’t know much about the newly appointed coach, except that he was also one of the options my professional colleague, Fisayo Dairo, had mentioned shortly before Ayeni was hired. And now here we are again, asking the same questions.
What are the terms of this appointment?
What are the expectations?
How long before the axe swings again?
Can hungry players owed salaries and bonuses suddenly produce miracles under yet another coach, overseen by a management that looks increasingly out of its depth?
These people are running our club into the ground. Enyimba has gone from being envied to being pitied. From feared to laughed at. And that, more than any single matchday defeat, is what hurts the most.
As someone rightly said, it is far easier to tear down than it is to build.
Sadly, at Enyimba, tearing down seems to be the only thing we do consistently well.
Enyimba Enyi
