Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Platinum Stars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Andile 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Platinum Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gift Mothiba 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Williams Khune trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Pentjie Zulu damages knee ligaments — 105 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 105 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.
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.
Platinum Stars asked and Free State Stars said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Bongani Mothiba is on it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Platinum Stars are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Platinum Stars people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have shaken hands with Orlando Pirates; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Evidence Erasmus is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Andile Mokoena 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 name of Luther Mothiba has come up in conversations Platinum Stars were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bongani Mothiba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Orlando Pirates have kept their man, and Platinum Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
25 games, 10 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Platinum Stars now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Platinum Stars, and both men came out saying it was fine.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Platinum Stars would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
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 Dean Mkhize has written the date down.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Andile 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.
25 appearances at Stade Malien and the goals keep coming. Platinum Stars are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Platinum Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luther Mothiba 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andile Grobler signs something — a contract at Platinum Stars or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
3 goals in 11 games at AFC Leopards — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Platinum Stars updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nkosi Gumede 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.
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 Bryn Deeley has written the date down.
“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 Platinum Stars will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Khama Jali trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Simphiwe Mtsweni and Platinum Stars agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Luther Mothiba has come out of that comparison in the side, and Platinum Stars have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.