Daniel Mjengu falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Dumisani Msibi arrives at 36 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Nobody at Bidvest Wits will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bidvest Wits, another week without a signature from Dumisani Msibi.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Bidvest Wits would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Nkosinathi Sibisi 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Bidvest Wits will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bidvest Wits, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Kabelo Dlamini is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bidvest Wits this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Bayanda Zulu has, at Bidvest Wits, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Nobody at Bidvest Wits will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bidvest Wits can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bidvest Wits this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nkosinathi Sibisi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Bidvest Wits will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bidvest Wits will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nkosinathi Sibisi 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bidvest Wits will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Nkosinathi Sibisi 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and Bidvest Wits go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Bidvest Wits know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Bidvest Wits will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bidvest Wits, another week without a signature from Bongani Mahlangu.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bidvest Wits will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
2‑6 to SuperSport United, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Two goals and a mark of 9.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bidvest Wits, and it is not being withdrawn.
That is the business done at Bidvest Wits until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bidvest Wits have done the hard part with Mamelodi Sundowns, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bidvest Wits will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bidvest Wits, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bidvest Wits have done the hard part with Mamelodi Sundowns, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
1‑4 to Kaizer Chiefs, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bidvest Wits, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Segun Owoade will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bidvest Wits the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nkosinathi Sibisi 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.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Words at Bidvest Wits training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Steven Moreira 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bidvest Wits will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1‑6 to Black Aces, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bidvest Wits they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nkosinathi Sibisi 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Bidvest Wits and Black Aces, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nkosinathi Sibisi, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Words at Bidvest Wits training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Segun Owoade 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.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 2 saves does not settle it either way.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 136 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bidvest Wits they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bidvest Wits this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Words at Bidvest Wits training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Steven Moreira 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.
Marked 8.07 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bidvest Wits is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nkosinathi Sibisi 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 Segun Owoade was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Bidvest Wits will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bidvest Wits, another week without a signature from Austin Harrison.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Lwanda Mbanjwa
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bidvest Wits will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chippa United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bidvest Wits is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have shaken hands with SuperSport United; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
7.76, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
At 17 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bidvest Wits lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bidvest Wits will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bongani Mahlangu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bidvest Wits the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bidvest Wits can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bidvest Wits this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bidvest Wits, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Bidvest Wits told Austin Harrison something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.