Marked for Samukelo Mlaba
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings26 Aug 2030
Age has not caught Ronwen Mokotjo yet — 8.00
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad26 Aug 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SuperSport United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Aug 2030
No hiding place for Khama Tau
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Khama Tau, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Samukelo Mlaba has improved at 26, which nobody expected
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.
Squad26 Aug 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Angelo Van Rooi and SuperSport United agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market26 Aug 2030
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. SuperSport United will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Player ratings26 Aug 2030
Marked 5.05, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Market26 Aug 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Teboho Grobler’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Jul 2030
The offer from Polokwane City for Muhammad Bower was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad29 Jul 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SuperSport United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Words at SuperSport United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronwen Mokotjo 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.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Samukelo Mlaba has improved at 26, which nobody expected
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.
Squad29 Jul 2030
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. SuperSport United told Emmanuel Jalai something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Market29 Jul 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Teboho Grobler’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jun 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SuperSport United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Words at SuperSport United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronwen Mokotjo 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.
Squad17 Jun 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Samukelo Mlaba and SuperSport United agree another 3 years.
Squad17 Jun 2030
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.
Market17 Jun 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. SuperSport United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market17 Jun 2030
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at SuperSport United, another week without a signature from Emmanuel Ujah.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Sep 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SuperSport United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Sep 2029
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at SuperSport United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronwen Mokotjo 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.
Match15 Sep 2029
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Paseka Mako gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Samukelo Mlaba has improved at 26, which nobody expected
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jun 2029
Thamsanqa Dolly damages knee ligaments — 26 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Market18 Jun 2029
Khama Mphela hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SuperSport United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Fredrick Asare 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Ronwen Mokotjo 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Samukelo Mlaba has improved at 25, which nobody expected
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Oct 2028
Fredrick Asare 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Ronwen Mokotjo 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.
Match28 Oct 2028
A 2‑1 win over Mamelodi Sundowns, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Marked 8.45 — 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.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Marked 8.31 — 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.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Matías Esquivel
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad30 Oct 2028
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.