Edward Maova damages knee ligaments — 145 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 145 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thabo Matlaba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ayanda Jiyane 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Themba Mantshiyane trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Golden Arrows 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Sbonelo Cele
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Themba Mantshiyane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thabo Matlaba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Golden Arrows this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Sabelo Sithole and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Thabo Matlaba is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Thabo Matlaba 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.
Ayanda Jiyane 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Brandon Theron is on it.
Ayanda Jiyane 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Golden Arrows training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Themba Mantshiyane 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.
Thabo Matlaba 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Golden Arrows this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Teboho Tlolane is on 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 Golden Arrows, and both men came out saying it was fine.
At 20 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.
Ayanda Jiyane 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.
Everybody at Golden Arrows saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 33 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
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 will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dumisani Msibi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Golden Arrows 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Golden Arrows know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 11 on 37 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
7 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
7 goals in one match, Jerome Karelse on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Golden Arrows and Black Aces.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Golden Arrows training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thabo Matlaba 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.
Ayanda Jiyane 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 Thabo Matlaba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Golden Arrows this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 6.59, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Thulani Lorch after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A Golden Arrows teenager takes the young player award
Alwande Booysen is 18, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
5 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thabo Matlaba and Golden Arrows agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Themba Mantshiyane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
University of Pretoria held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Golden Arrows answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Themba Mantshiyane, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Thulani Lorch to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutThabo Matlaba has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutJerome Karelse asks for a word with the manager
Bloemfontein Celtic go through and Golden Arrows go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Golden Arrows has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Golden Arrows training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thabo Matlaba 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.
Ayanda Jiyane 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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“I watch every Golden Arrows game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Jomo Cosmos runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Dumisani Msibi's mistake
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.27 for the rest of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thabo Matlaba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ayanda Jiyane 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Mamelodi Sundowns had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Jerome Karelse.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kwanele Nayo and Golden Arrows agree another 4 years.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Golden Arrows can pretend not to have heard.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Keenan Phillips and Golden Arrows agree another 3 years.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Golden Arrows training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thabo Matlaba 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.
At 18 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Bloemfontein Celtic arrived with $510.0K and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Golden Arrows people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Philani Khumalo has gone, the accounts have $510.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Newell's Old Boys is saying, and nobody at Golden Arrows is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thabo Matlaba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Criciúma have kept their man, and Golden Arrows go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ayanda Jiyane 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.
“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 Golden Arrows, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 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.
Golden Arrows asked and Mamelodi Sundowns said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ayanda Jiyane 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Golden Arrows have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Golden Arrows training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Themba Mantshiyane 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.
4 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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Golden Arrows can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Thabo Matlaba 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Golden Arrows this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Kwanele Nayo again, and this time the name on the line is Free State Stars. Golden Arrows are listening politely and promising nothing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Thulani Lorch after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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 Golden Arrows, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cortulua keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Golden Arrows training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thabo Matlaba 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Golden Arrows can tell you which week it ends in.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Huracán have kept their man, and Golden Arrows go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Golden Arrows will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Golden Arrows have done the hard part with Cortulua, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Golden Arrows asked and San Lorenzo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ayanda Jiyane 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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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 finished 1‑0, and it was Ayanda Jiyane’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Golden Arrows.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Thabo Matlaba 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Thulani Lorch could afford to be generous.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Golden Arrows have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Golden Arrows this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Jerome Karelse’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Golden Arrows.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Golden Arrows training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Themba Mantshiyane 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Teboho Tlolane's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Themba Mantshiyane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Golden Arrows game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Jomo Cosmos runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutAyanda Jiyane is still being punished for one mistake
The dugoutBrandon Theron dropped after a run of poor form
1‑4 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 7.24, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Angelo Van Rooi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thabo Matlaba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Golden Arrows, and 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Thulani Lorch to a room that had heard them before.