It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ko Itakura wants continental football; whether Borussia Mönchengladbach can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Borussia Mönchengladbach are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Borja Sainz 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Borussia Mönchengladbach can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tim Kleindienst was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Denis Zakaria 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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.
Borja Sainz 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Ngcobo 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 is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jan Olschowsky has his answer from Borussia Mönchengladbach; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Florian Neuhaus has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jan Olschowsky trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Borussia Mönchengladbach have no good answer.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.11 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Borussia Mönchengladbach can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Borussia Mönchengladbach are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Borja Sainz 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Erick Ngcobo 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 training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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 Kevin Stöger is on it.
A brace, and Borja Sainz takes the afternoon — 8.20
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Borja Sainz provided it, and the 8.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 18 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Borja Sainz. 3‑1 against Heidenheim, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ayoube Amaimouni-Echghouyab 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.
Marked 8.24 — 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Jonas Wagner could afford to be generous.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Borussia Mönchengladbach can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Denis Zakaria and Borussia Mönchengladbach agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Ngcobo 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.
A 1‑0 win over Borussia Dortmund, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Borussia Mönchengladbach are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Denis Zakaria was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Jonas Wagner could afford to be generous.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Borussia Mönchengladbach hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Denis Zakaria 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.
Eintracht Frankfurt left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Franck Honorat'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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jonas Wagner after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Borussia Mönchengladbach may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Denis Zakaria 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jonas Wagner after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Borussia Mönchengladbach will feel it on Saturday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Ngcobo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Borussia Mönchengladbach will be judged on one thing only.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jonas Wagner on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Successful dribbles: 32. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A brace, and Erick Ngcobo takes the afternoon — 8.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Erick Ngcobo provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Borussia Mönchengladbach, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Jens Castrop reports back to Borussia Mönchengladbach with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Borussia Mönchengladbach hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
“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 Borussia Mönchengladbach, and it is not being withdrawn.
A squad is not eleven players and a wish. Erick Ngcobo arrives from SuperSport United to make the number up properly, and the value of that will be argued about in March rather than today.
Kevin Stöger 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.
Erick Ngcobo was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $22.4M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Borussia Mönchengladbach will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Jonas Wagner to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Borussia Mönchengladbach 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Borussia Mönchengladbach arrived with $22.4M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Plateau United had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Erick Ngcobo has gone, the accounts have $22.4M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Lamin Jawo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oumar Komara 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. SuperSport United have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SuperSport United can pretend not to have heard.
Bidvest Wits paid $150.0K and SuperSport United took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
SuperSport United asked and Plymouth Argyle said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Orlando Pirates waiting with a shirt. Nobody at SuperSport United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SuperSport United can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Ajax Cape Town is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gopolang Taunyane is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kaizer Chiefs have kept their man, and SuperSport United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Jomo Cosmos will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. SuperSport United were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. SuperSport United will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The offer from Enyimba for Williams Jali 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.
Everything agreed with Golden Arrows, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The offer from Grêmio for Erick Ngcobo 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.
A 1‑0 win over Bloemfontein Celtic, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Itumeleng Modiba kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luther Phiri 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.11 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lamin Jawo 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.
Out, 0‑2 to Bloemfontein Celtic, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Lamin Jawo 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.
It finished 2‑1, and it was Erick Ngcobo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to SuperSport United.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Lamin Jawo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.69. 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.
Position 1, 40 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
7 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Erick Ngcobo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.43. 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lamin Jawo 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.
Themba Ngcobo 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.
34 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Thabiso Lebitso 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.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luther Phiri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Sipho Mbule’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and SuperSport United needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Luther Phiri is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at SuperSport United. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at SuperSport United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The first defeat in 12 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Ajax Cape Town; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Lamin Jawo 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Lamin Jawo 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 award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. SuperSport United have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
A performance of 9.72 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Lamin Jawo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.56. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Itumeleng Modiba on a 4‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
10 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.
27 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
At 19 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Erick Ngcobo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Lamin Jawo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oumar Komara 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.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. SuperSport United told Divine Lunga something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Erick Ngcobo scored in the 88th minute, Platinum Stars had already begun thinking about the journey home, and SuperSport United took the lot.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SuperSport United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Lamin Jawo 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.
Ethen Sampson 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 easiest signature of my career.” Themba Ngcobo and SuperSport United agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Lamin Jawo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.49. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lamin Jawo 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lamin Jawo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Itumeleng Modiba kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
6 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Luther Phiri, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.28
A mark of 8.28 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SuperSport United can pretend not to have heard.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Orlando Pirates moved on, Itumeleng Kekana reports back to SuperSport United, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Marked 9.68 — 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.47 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Independiente Medellin; SuperSport United go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
The chase for Ethan Chislett ended with $240.0K changing hands and Kaizer Chiefs out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kermit 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.
The offer from Ismaily for Lebogang Billiat 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at SuperSport United heard it as anything else.
The offer went to Mamelodi Sundowns this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Kermit 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slovan Bratislava have kept their man, and SuperSport United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Williams Jali 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.
Mamelodi Sundowns 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.
Orlando Pirates 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.