The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Black Aces is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Black Aces this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamogelo Sebelebele 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.
Marked 9.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The terraces25 Oct 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Lebogang Mokoena 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.
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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Two goals and a mark of 9.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hikaru Endo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Black Aces the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Black Aces this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It finished 3‑2, and it was Teboho Mkhize’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Black Aces.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamogelo Sebelebele 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.
7.34, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kamogelo Sebelebele is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Black Aces this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Dean Mokoena on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Black Aces and Ajax Cape Town.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamogelo Sebelebele 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Two goals and a mark of 9.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Lebogang Mokoena 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Black Aces and Polokwane City, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
Black Aces spend $280.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $280.0K for Papama Tyongwana, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cohen Stander 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 28 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Lebogang Mokoena 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Aug 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Khama Ngcobo's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Marked 3.55. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Black Aces this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
20 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Marks Munyai.
Two goals and a mark of 8.60 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Andile Jali 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.
“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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kermit Vilakazi 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
6 goals in 22 games at Chippa United — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Black Aces updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Jomo Cosmos the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Black Aces will enjoy reviewing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Black Aces have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Black Aces this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mandla Tau 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Black Aces can pretend not to have heard.
Lebogang Mokoena 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Mandla Tau 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Black Aces pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Shots: 4. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Black Aces this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.91 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Teboho Mkhize has his answer from Black Aces; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. University of Pretoria kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Black Aces will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mandla Tau 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.
8.42. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Mandla Tau was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Andile Jali 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Dean Mokoena was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Black Aces told Frank Angong something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad14 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Khama Ngcobo's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
4 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Black Aces this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Mamelodi Sundowns left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mandla Tau 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.
7 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Andile Jali's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Black Aces will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Lebogang Mokoena 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Frank Angong trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Black Aces will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.32 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 9 of the 31 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Black Aces training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mandla Tau 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Andile Jali 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mandla Tau 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.
Marked 8.50 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.