Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Zakhele Shabangu has, at Mara Sugar, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Alex Imbusia 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.
He is 20, and nobody at Mara Sugar signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
6 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mara Sugar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Thabang Molefe has, at Mara Sugar, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mara Sugar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Mara Sugar have gone and got theirs early.
Alex Imbusia 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.