‘We Need Time and Patience’: Analysing Tobi Adepoju’s First Words as Shooting Stars’ Sporting Director

There’s something about Ibadan and its football — the tension, the history, the noise. Shooting Stars isn’t just a club here; it’s identity. It’s what makes matchdays feel like something.

From Yekini and Odegbami to the fans in the stands who would bleed for this badge, 3SC has always been more than 90 minutes. It’s pride, culture, and for many, the only thing that makes sense in chaos.

But in recent years, things haven’t exactly felt glorious. Results dipped. Promises didn’t match performances. And while the fans stayed loud, frustration crept in.

So when the club hit the reset button this offseason with a new Chairman, new COO, new Sporting Director, new head coach, there was something different in the air. Hope, and maybe the sense that finally, someone was willing to build.

And at the heart of this reset is Adepoju Tobi Samuel, a veteran journalist, the guy who for many years has documented the madness of Nigerian football. Now, he’s the one in the boardroom. And his first interview made one thing clear: this won’t be a quick fix.

We need time and patience to build this project.

“One year is not enough to make a judgment. In the second year, we’ll find stability, which means that by our third year, we should achieve greatness. We need the fans to understand that we need to build this project, and we need time.”

That’s what Adepoju said in his first interview with the club media, and that line might define everything about this new era.

Because in Nigerian football, patience is rare. Most people want it now. Win now. Buy now. Sack now. Repeat.

But Adepoju is saying wait. Not forever, but long enough to build something worth watching.

Tobi Adepoju isn’t new to this. He’s someone who has breathed the air of the Nigeria Premier Football League for years,  as a journalist, a fan, a consultant, and most recently, as a key figure (director) in the structure at Ikorodu City FC. He knows the terrain, knows the politics, and crucially, he knows Shooting Stars. This is a club he’s followed since boyhood. So, when he speaks now as Sporting Director, his words deserve more than passing attention, they deserve patience.

His ideas aren’t radical. If anything, they sound like common sense, but in Nigerian football, common sense often feels revolutionary. He’s not selling dreams. He’s laying out a structure.

His words are not difficult 

Year One: Just understand what’s going on. Strip it down. Build a skeleton. No illusions.

Year Two is where things should start to look like something. A style of play. A bit of consistency.

Year Three is where you go for it. Something bigger, something that lasts. Not just another brief spell of form. Something real.

It’s not the easiest truth, but it’s not the hardest either, and if 3SC are serious about being more than just nostalgia and memories, this is where it starts.

What makes this more interesting is that Tobi Adepoju is a man who understands fans. He’s been one. He knows what it’s like to expect more, to demand better. And now he’s asking them for something that doesn’t come naturally, trust.

Will the fans wait?

That’s the real question, isn’t it?

Because in Ibadan, patience runs thin when points aren’t coming. This club has history, and many of the fans have been built to want it to happen so quickly.

But to be fair, they don’t need trophies right away. They just need to believe there’s a plan. A proper one. One that doesn’t change every three months.

The new administration’s job is to make them believe. And to keep the structure strong when things go wrong, because they will at some point.

Of course, the test will come. It always does. Fans may understand “process” in theory, but football is cruel in practice. A few poor results, and the noise may not be appealing to the ear. It’s not enough to have a plan. You have to survive long enough for that plan to breathe.

With the way this team is moving right now in structure, there’s something quietly compelling about it.

Adepoju has asked for time and patience.

Ibadan will be watching.

So will we.