“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Platinum Stars heard it as anything else.
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Platinum Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evidence Mabunda 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.
Gift Dala 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Platinum Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evidence Mabunda 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ronwen Dala, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Platinum Stars man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Sifiso Zwane was the best thing in any of them.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Platinum Stars heard it as anything else.
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 month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ronwen Billiat is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Bidvest Wits will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Platinum Stars were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Platinum Stars 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.
Marked 9.18 — 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 a particular helplessness in conceding 3 times before the twentieth minute. Bidvest Wits tried to reorganise, Platinum Stars did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Chances created: 8. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
“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 Platinum Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marked 7.87. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Erick Phiri
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Platinum Stars man
Ronwen Billiat, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.80
A mark of 7.80 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
1 for Erick Phiri, marked 7.43, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Gift Dala 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Platinum Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evidence Mabunda 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Ronwen Billiat 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.
Ronwen Billiat is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.