Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Free State Stars will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Free State Stars have lost him in all but the paperwork.
$690.0K on the table at SuperSport United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Evidence Mabunda 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.
$43.0K on the table at Chippa United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Free State Stars asked and Mamelodi Sundowns said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bongani Khune, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Kermit Modiba 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bidvest Wits waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Free State Stars is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
$670.0K settles it between the clubs for Kermit Tau
SuperSport United have accepted the money. What Free State Stars do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer went to Chippa United 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.
Free State Stars asked and Orlando Pirates said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boikanyo Komane 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. Kermit Modiba 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 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 Mandla Kekana has written the date down.
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Free State Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Evidence 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.
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 Khama Dala is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kermit Modiba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bongani Khune signs something — a contract at Free State Stars or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Free State Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Evidence Mabunda 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Harold Majadibodu and Free State Stars agree another 2 years.
The young player of the month award goes to a 19-year-old at Free State Stars who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
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 Robert Luthuli is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Free State Stars know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Robert Luthuli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Free State Stars and SuperSport United have settled on $760.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Free State Stars has to find a result from somewhere.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Mamelodi Sundowns is saying, and nobody at Free State Stars is enjoying the guessing.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Free State Stars can tell you which week it ends in.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.03, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against SuperSport United in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Free State Stars will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Free State Stars have gone to SuperSport United with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Mamelodi Sundowns keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ramahlwe Zwane 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.
$43.0K on the table at Chippa United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$43.0K was the most the club would pay and Chippa United were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mandla Kekana and Free State Stars agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
$110.0K settles it between the clubs for Stabiso Njoko
Golden Arrows have accepted the money. What Free State Stars do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Evidence Mabunda 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gosiame Ngobeni and Free State Stars agree another 4 years.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andile Lorch trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Free State Stars the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
“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.
Ramahlwe Zwane 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.
Everybody at Free State Stars saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kabelo Mahlasela 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.