“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mamelodi Sundowns can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Mamelodi Sundowns have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mamelodi Sundowns have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ronwen Williams 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.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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.
Add another name to the list: Orlando Pirates have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ismail Watenga. The answer from Mamelodi Sundowns has not changed — yet.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chippa United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Mamelodi Sundowns is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 The request is on a desk at Mamelodi Sundowns, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mamelodi Sundowns is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mamelodi Sundowns this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Junaid Seedat is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Malibongwe Khoza 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Add another name to the list: Medeama have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Collins Nwoburuoke. The answer from Mamelodi Sundowns has not changed — yet.
Nobody at Mamelodi Sundowns 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.
“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 Mamelodi Sundowns, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Mamelodi Sundowns heard it as anything else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mamelodi Sundowns is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ronwen Williams 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 Marcelo Allende was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Marcelo Allende is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mamelodi Sundowns, another week without a signature from Fawaaz Basadien.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mamelodi Sundowns can pretend not to have heard.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mamelodi Sundowns is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ronwen Williams 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.
“I did not go to Orlando Pirates to sit and watch. I want to come back to Mamelodi Sundowns and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 11 matches say the rest.
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 Ronwen Williams is on it.
The captaincy has been taken off Marcelo Allende. Mamelodi Sundowns will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mamelodi Sundowns lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mamelodi Sundowns is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Mamelodi Sundowns, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marcelo Allende and Mamelodi Sundowns agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Ronwen Williams 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 Marcelo Allende 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 Mamelodi Sundowns, and 1 appearances in 7 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
In brief
The dugoutBrayan León knocks on the manager’s door
30 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 100th minute. Polokwane City will replay every second of the added time for a week.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.15 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mamelodi Sundowns they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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 Siyabonga Erasmus 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. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and Ajax Cape Town go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ajax Cape Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.01 — 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Ajax Cape Town will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
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.
23 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atlético Tucumán is saying, and nobody at Mamelodi Sundowns is enjoying the guessing.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Abubeker Nasir decided nobody was going anywhere. Orlando Pirates had no time left to answer.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mamelodi Sundowns they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
127 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mamelodi Sundowns lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
1 for Teboho Mokoena, marked 7.98, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lehlogonolo Mohlabine will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mamelodi Sundowns the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ronwen Williams 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mamelodi Sundowns is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ronwen Williams 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
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.
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 Ronwen Williams is on it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Mamelodi Sundowns people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Mamelodi Sundowns heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcelo Allende 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.
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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mamelodi Sundowns have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mamelodi Sundowns they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Mamelodi Sundowns, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kegan Johannes and Mamelodi Sundowns agree another 3 years.
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.
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.
In brief
MarketJunaid Seedat returns from a loan that gave him nothing
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mamelodi Sundowns lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Mamelodi Sundowns, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zuko Mdunyelwa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mamelodi Sundowns the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mamelodi Sundowns this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcelo Allende 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 Mamelodi Sundowns, and 3 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Mokoena is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mamelodi Sundowns can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mamelodi Sundowns 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 Mamelodi Sundowns this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcelo Allende was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Mamelodi Sundowns game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ajax Cape Town runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Mokoena is on it.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ajax Cape Town lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ajax Cape Town they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Siyabonga Erasmus 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 accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Ajax Cape Town now.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Ntando Nkosi 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.
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.
Nobody at Ajax Cape Town 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.
52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ajax Cape Town lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ajax Cape Town have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pule Mmodi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ajax Cape Town the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Pule Mmodi has agreed terms with Orlando Pirates for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Rivaldo Mabunda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Ajax Cape Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Siyabonga Erasmus 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.
Bloemfontein Celtic will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ntsikelelo Nyauza has pre-agreed a move to Ajax Cape Town, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zuko Mdunyelwa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mamelodi Sundowns the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mamelodi Sundowns this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Malibongwe Khoza and Mamelodi Sundowns agree another 4 years.
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.
8 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
“I watch every Mamelodi Sundowns game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ajax Cape Town runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.