130 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SuperSport United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SuperSport United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ronwen Mahlangu is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kermit Hlatshwayo is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Andile Kekana 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.
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.
The offer from Rivers United for Rivaldo Mabunda 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Kevin Bijol from NK Domzale for $680.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Andile Kekana 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.
“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 SuperSport United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ronwen Mahlangu is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Add another name to the list: Rivers United have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Rivaldo Mabunda. The answer from SuperSport United has not changed — yet.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andile Kekana 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.
“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 Kermit Hlatshwayo.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Khama Zwane and SuperSport United agree another 5 years.
Andile Hlatshwayo 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Andile Kekana 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 loan was meant to give him football. 2 games and 0 goals later he is back at SuperSport United no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. SuperSport United rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Free State Stars had no answer to any of it.
15 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hlompho Mabunda provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Remo Stars for Rivaldo Mabunda 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.13 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 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.
Andile Hlatshwayo 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hlompho Mabunda. 3‑2 against Free State Stars, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
SquadSifiso Grobler falls out with a teammate over standards
$4.3M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Luther Dolly was one of the reasons people came, and $4.3M does not replace that by itself.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The name of Rivaldo Mabunda has come up in conversations SuperSport United were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sifiso Grobler and SuperSport United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sifiso Grobler 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 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Siyabonga Phiri 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sifiso Grobler. 2‑0 against Kaizer Chiefs, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zuko Mdunyelwa 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.