Clubs preparing to fight on both domestic and continental fronts have been busy in the transfer market, strengthening their squads and parading new signings before supporters as evidence of their ambitions for the coming season. Meanwhile, Enyimba fans continue to look on, searching for some reassurance amid plans that remain uncertain, unclear and, for reasons best known to those in charge, largely hidden from public view.
Watching Kalu Nweke join Shooting Stars stung. It reminded me of the feeling when some of our key players moved to Rivers United in 2024 and others crossed over to Abia Warriors in 2025. For the third consecutive season, we are watching players leave Aba for clubs that increasingly appear to offer something we once represented ourselves: ambition, stability and a clear sense of direction.
Perhaps losing players would not hurt so much if quality replacements followed quickly. Instead, important departures have too often been followed by uncertainty, and the consequences have shown up clearly enough in our end-of-season report cards.
In fairness to the players, football is a profession. A player will naturally gravitate towards an environment where his welfare is better protected and his career interests are better served. Clubs competing on the continent are especially attractive because they usually come with greater exposure, bigger ambitions and, hopefully, improved welfare packages. For a player trying to move his career forward, those things are difficult to ignore.
What makes this situation particularly painful is remembering what Enyimba used to represent.
For decades, the People’s Elephant attracted quality players like a magnet. We were usually the ones looking around the league and asking, “Who is their best player?” before making a move. Enugu Rangers, in particular, became one of our favourite fishing grounds. Emeka Nwanna arrived in 2001, Okey Akabogu followed in 2002, Romanus Orjinta in 2003, Jerome Ezeoba and Oge Ileagu in 2004, Sam Okoye and Ekene Emigo in 2005, then Okey Odita and Sam Ledor in 2006.
Those acquisitions strengthened Enyimba, contributed to trophies and, whether Rangers supporters enjoyed admitting it or not, weakened one of our traditional rivals. That was what being the dominant club allowed us to do.
The tables have since turned.
There is nothing unusual about losing players. Even the biggest clubs in the world eventually lose footballers who once appeared indispensable. Contracts expire, better offers arrive, ambitions change and players move on. The important question is not whether a club loses a good player; it is what the club does immediately afterwards.
Supporters can accept departures when there is evidence of a plan. Lose an important midfielder and bring in another with comparable quality. Sell your best striker and reinvest. Allow an experienced defender to leave and have his replacement ready. Sometimes that means paying slightly above what you originally intended, but serious clubs understand that standing still can eventually become more expensive.
There is an Igbo adage about taking something valuable away from a child and immediately giving the child something else interesting enough to stop the crying. Football supporters are not children, of course, but the principle applies.
If Kalu Nweke leaves, show us what comes next. If Chinedu Ufere is gone, demonstrate how that hole will be filled. Give supporters something tangible that shows the club understands what has been lost and has intentionally moved to replace it.
Instead, we are left with conjecture, rumours and hope.
That is where the frustration comes from.
Enyimba cannot continually lose important players and expect supporters to simply assume that everything will somehow work itself out behind closed doors. There was a time when joining Enyimba represented an upward career move for almost any player in the NPFL. Today, we increasingly find ourselves watching players leave for teams whose projects appear more attractive.
That reversal should bother everyone associated with the club.
Different football environments have different ownership and governance structures. At member-driven clubs, leadership ultimately has an electorate to answer to. Elsewhere, wealthy investors or consortiums own the majority stake and appoint professionals to manage operations. Nigerian football has its own peculiar model, particularly with the heavy government involvement in many NPFL clubs.
But whatever the structure, certain principles should remain universal.
Responsiveness. Accountability. Transparency.
Those three things should not be considered unreasonable demands from supporters.
A club does not need to reveal every transfer negotiation or tactical plan to demonstrate transparency. Nobody is asking Enyimba to livestream recruitment meetings. But supporters should have a reasonable idea of where their club is heading, who is staying, who has arrived and what sort of project they are being asked to believe in.
Our structure makes that demand even more important because supporters possess very little actual power.
At some clubs, sustained dissatisfaction can eventually threaten the position of those running the organisation. In our environment, supporter anger can sometimes amount to little more than hot air that cannot boil water. The person at the top does not necessarily have to fear losing an election or facing a vote of no confidence because results have deteriorated. The appointing authority ultimately determines his fate.
And once the appointing authority remains satisfied, everybody else can apparently continue shouting from the terraces.
If the helmsman is in a generous mood, perhaps the gates are thrown open and supporters are allowed to watch a match for free. Nice gesture. Thank you very much. But free admission cannot replace accountability, just as nostalgia cannot replace progress.
That is why transparency matters even more in our setting.
Supporters may not possess the power to hire or fire, but they remain one of the club’s most important constituencies. They provide the emotion, identity and loyalty that make Enyimba more than eleven men wearing blue shirts. They deserve more than occasional information when it is convenient.
More importantly, Enyimba must become attractive again.
We should be the club players look towards when they want to compete for titles, play continental football and advance their careers. We should not become the club where good players establish themselves before somebody else offers them a more convincing project.
The magnet must start pulling again.
That will require more than announcing ambitious targets before every season. It means building an environment where players want to stay, where potential signings want to come, where welfare commitments are respected and where recruitment consistently matches the standards the club claims to represent.
The kickoff is getting closer, and every day between now and then matters. Perhaps there are quality players already signed and waiting to be unveiled. Perhaps the silence is hiding a beautifully constructed plan that will surprise all of us when the curtain finally opens.
We certainly hope so.
Because after watching some of our best legs walk away season after season, hope is becoming an expensive currency.
Enyimba used to raid the rest.
We cannot become comfortable watching the rest raid Enyimba.
EnyimbaEnyi
