Marked for Ntando Chai
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 May 2032
No end in sight to Vicenza's wait for a win
16 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vicenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom3 May 2032
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market3 May 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vicenza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market3 May 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market3 May 2032
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Vicenza heard it as anything else.
Boardroom3 May 2032
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Match1 May 2032
Vicenza cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad3 May 2032
Giuseppe Cuomo 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.
Market3 May 2032
Christian Vaccaro comes back from a loan that worked
30 appearances and 8 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Apr 2032
15 matches without a win for Vicenza
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Vicenza are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom26 Apr 2032
The scrutiny sharpens at Vicenza
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Vicenza is running low.
The terraces26 Apr 2032
The mood at Vicenza has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match24 Apr 2032
0‑6 to Lecco, 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.
Market26 Apr 2032
Lorenzo Milani has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vicenza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market26 Apr 2032
Ntando Chai 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 Vicenza can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
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Match24 Apr 2032
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Vicenza and Lecco in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad26 Apr 2032
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Apr 2032
14 matches without a win for Vicenza
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Vicenza are no longer polite ones.
Market19 Apr 2032
“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 Vicenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Apr 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vicenza can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Boardroom19 Apr 2032
Wages eat 141% of everything Vicenza earn
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.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
“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.
Squad19 Apr 2032
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enea Pitti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings19 Apr 2032
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2032
Marked 7.64. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
Half-satisfied: Interim Coach on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Apr 2032
No end in sight to Vicenza's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vicenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom5 Apr 2032
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Vicenza can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market5 Apr 2032
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vicenza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market5 Apr 2032
Matěj Hybš 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 Vicenza can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout5 Apr 2032
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vicenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom5 Apr 2032
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Davide Franzini has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad5 Apr 2032
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti 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.
Match3 Apr 2032
A bad afternoon for Vicenza against Renate
1‑3 to Renate, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout5 Apr 2032
Ntando Chai 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Nov 2030
Bradley Zungu damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Match23 Nov 2030
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Jerome Karelse was at the centre of it, Bloemfontein Celtic were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
Squad25 Nov 2030
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market25 Nov 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Jerome Karelse
17 goals and a season average of 7.36 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market25 Nov 2030
Dennis Mbevi has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Golden Arrows they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings25 Nov 2030
A performance of 9.70 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Nov 2030
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Golden Arrows lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings4 Nov 2030
Teboho Zungu, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.42
A mark of 8.42 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad4 Nov 2030
13 seasons and 252 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Sbonelo Cele 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.
Player ratings4 Nov 2030
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces4 Nov 2030
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Teboho Zungu has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match2 Nov 2030
A 2‑0 win over University of Pretoria, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad4 Nov 2030
A season average of 7.22 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings4 Nov 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.67, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Ntando Chai
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The terraces
The spotlight tightens on Thakasani Mbanjwa
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Sep 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match21 Sep 2030
7 matches without a win for Golden Arrows
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Golden Arrows are no longer polite ones.
Match21 Sep 2030
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Sbonelo Cele 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.
Match21 Sep 2030
2‑3 to Free State Stars, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The terraces23 Sep 2030
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ntando Ngwenya has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
A performance of 8.01 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad23 Sep 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bradley Jali and Golden Arrows agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Sep 2030
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market2 Sep 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at Golden Arrows 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.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Sbonelo Cele in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad2 Sep 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lungelo Dube and Golden Arrows agree another 2 years.
Match31 Aug 2030
Kaizer Chiefs left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Transfer targets2 Sep 2030
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.
Market2 Sep 2030
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Kwanele Nkabi has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Golden Arrows.
Squad2 Sep 2030
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Velemseni Ndwandwe has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom22 Jul 2030
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Golden Arrows is running low.
Market22 Jul 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Golden Arrows is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Mamelodi Sundowns keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Sbonelo Cele 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.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Siyabonga Zungu is 16, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and Golden Arrows go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
A loan enquiry to Kaizer Chiefs: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout22 Jul 2030
Ntando Chai 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.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Ntando Chai has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Golden Arrows will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.