Marked for Anothando Menemene
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match8 Dec 2029
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Kaizer Chiefs have 11 straight wins of it.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
Thabo Mokwena: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kaizer Chiefs have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match8 Dec 2029
Another one collected away from home
6 on the bounce on the road for Kaizer Chiefs. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad10 Dec 2029
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Anothando Menemene is living that version at Kaizer Chiefs, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad10 Dec 2029
A season average of 7.42 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad10 Dec 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 Kaizer Chiefs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Dec 2029
The shirt still fits. Anothando Menemene is back at Kaizer Chiefs, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Words at Kaizer Chiefs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oswin Appollis 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.
Match8 Dec 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Etiosa Ighodaro. 1‑0 against Free State Stars, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match15 Jan 2029
Position 3 and 51 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market15 Jan 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kaizer Chiefs have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kaizer Chiefs have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market15 Jan 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kaizer Chiefs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Ayman Fallatah arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ayman Fallatah has, at Kaizer Chiefs, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Olimpia is saying, and nobody at Kaizer Chiefs is enjoying the guessing.
Market15 Jan 2029
The bid was some way short and Kaizer Chiefs did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Brandon Petersen 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Jun 2028
“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.
Market5 Jun 2028
The offer from University of Pretoria for Lebohang Dhlamini 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Brandon Petersen 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oswin Appollis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market5 Jun 2028
The name of Anothando Menemene has come up in conversations Kaizer Chiefs were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad5 Jun 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thabo Mokwena and Kaizer Chiefs agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
Pafos have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
A loan move for Shina Ayodele is in the works
Kaizer Chiefs have made the call to LOSC Lille. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
Plymouth Argyle have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 Mar 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bokamoso Mokokosi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kaizer Chiefs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lebohang Maboe and Kaizer Chiefs agree another 2 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Brandon Petersen 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Anothando Menemene is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Oswin Appollis 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 dugout6 Mar 2028
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.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
Oswin Appollis has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kaizer Chiefs 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.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
Lebohang Maboe knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kaizer Chiefs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market6 Mar 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kaizer Chiefs, another week without a signature from Sibongiseni Mthethwa.