Marked for Sifiso Erasmus
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces13 May 2030
Supporters organise against the Free State Stars board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market13 May 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.
Market13 May 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Free State Stars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad13 May 2030
Bongani Mphela 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.
Squad13 May 2030
Words at Free State Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rivaldo Zwane 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.
Squad13 May 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sifiso Erasmus commits to Free State Stars for another 2 years.
The dugout13 May 2030
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Khulumani Ndamane is on it.
The dugout13 May 2030
The manager makes an example of Cebisa Ndlovu
“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.
The dugout13 May 2030
Junaid Sait asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 May 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.
Market6 May 2030
Mandla Mabunda has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Free State Stars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout6 May 2030
Junaid Sait: 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.” Free State Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad6 May 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 Free State Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 May 2030
Rivaldo Zwane 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 May 2030
“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.
The dugout6 May 2030
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Bongani Mphela is on it.
The dugout6 May 2030
Luther Mabunda is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Jun 2029
Position 15, 22 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Boardroom25 Jun 2029
Pressure builds in the Free State Stars boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market25 Jun 2029
“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 Jun 2029
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Everything agreed with Maritzburg United, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Mandla Mabunda 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Thamsanqa Mphela has improved at 24, 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.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad25 Jun 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sifiso Erasmus and Free State Stars agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.