31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kaizer Chiefs lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Etiosa Ighodaro will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kaizer Chiefs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 The request is on a desk at Kaizer Chiefs, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohamed Kanté and Kaizer Chiefs agree another 4 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan Nyambe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kaizer Chiefs, another week without a signature from Etiosa Ighodaro.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
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.
In brief
The dugoutAden McCarthy back under a manager who knows him
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Kaizer Chiefs people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Asanele Velebayi 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 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.
A loan enquiry to Orlando Pirates: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
FC Nordsjaelland 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.
The offer from Aduana Stars for Nana Antwi 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 medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kaizer Chiefs have done the hard part with Orlando Pirates, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Ryan Nyambe 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.
Kaizer Chiefs asked and Krasnodar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kaizer Chiefs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kaizer Chiefs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kaizer Chiefs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 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 Lebohang Maboe is on it.
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.” Lebohang Maboe has his answer from Kaizer Chiefs; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Kaizer Chiefs 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.
Position 4, 65 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Kaizer Chiefs. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Luke Le Roux decided otherwise. University of Pretoria had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kaizer Chiefs can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings22 Oct 2029
A brace, and Luke Le Roux takes the afternoon — 8.32
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luke Le Roux provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Asanele Velebayi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match20 Oct 2029
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Kaizer Chiefs. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
A 3‑2 win over University of Pretoria, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan Nyambe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Keanu Cupido
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simon Ramabu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kaizer Chiefs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kaizer Chiefs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words at Kaizer Chiefs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Keanu Cupido 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.
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 Asanele Velebayi is on it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Kaizer Chiefs will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against University of Pretoria in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kaizer Chiefs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Mamelodi Sundowns have accepted the money. What Kaizer Chiefs do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Kaizer Chiefs people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Two goals and a mark of 8.53 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Kaizer Chiefs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Thabo Mokwena has gone, the accounts have $560.0K 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 12 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Rivers United is saying, and nobody at Kaizer Chiefs is enjoying the guessing.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kaizer Chiefs have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at Kaizer Chiefs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thabiso Monyane 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Boca Juniors have kept their man, and Kaizer Chiefs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ashley Du Preez 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.
Kaizer Chiefs have made the call to Polissia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Kaizer Chiefs 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kaizer Chiefs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutAshley Du Preez back under a manager who knows him
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kaizer Chiefs lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simon Ramabu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kaizer Chiefs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Asanele Velebayi 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.
Squad7 May 2029
Ryan Nyambe 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.
University of Pretoria will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Kaizer Chiefs were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kaizer Chiefs have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deal that would have taken Nkosingiphile Ngcobo to Golden Arrows has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Kaizer Chiefs with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and University of Pretoria waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kaizer Chiefs 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 Kaizer Chiefs can pretend not to have heard.
The name of Nkosingiphile Ngcobo has come up in conversations Kaizer Chiefs were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Qingdao West Coast keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Kaizer Chiefs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ryan Nyambe 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zorya have kept their man, and Kaizer Chiefs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Cassius Mailula 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.
Position 2, 52 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Jomo Cosmos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kaizer Chiefs is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kaizer Chiefs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
77 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Bradley Cross 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. Chippa United have kept their man, and Kaizer Chiefs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
After 22 games, Kaizer Chiefs finally taste it again
The first defeat in 22 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Bidvest Wits; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kaizer Chiefs have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The name of Mfundo Vilakazi has come up in conversations Kaizer Chiefs were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Itumeleng Mahlangu has, at Kaizer Chiefs, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Everything agreed with Orlando Pirates, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Ryan Nyambe 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.
Kaizer Chiefs asked and Chippa United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.