A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. University of Pretoria will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. University of Pretoria lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
University of Pretoria and Polokwane City have settled on $78.0K. 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.
The deal with Mamelodi Sundowns 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at University of Pretoria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
University of Pretoria offered $22.0K; Polokwane City said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Luvoyo Phewa 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 have made the call to Mamelodi Sundowns. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The words a physio says slowly. 91 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Joseph Okoro has just signed for University of Pretoria, and for once the answer mattered.
Riyaaz Ismail 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Luvoyo Phewa 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.
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 Ronaldo Maarman is on it.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at University of Pretoria is running low.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” University of Pretoria have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luvoyo Phewa 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at University of Pretoria, another week without a signature from Riyaaz Ismail.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at University of Pretoria is running low.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Up for the corner, and Luke Le Roux delivers — 7.70
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Luke Le Roux scored, was marked 7.70, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at University of Pretoria can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Veli Mothwa now has 25 of them across 210 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at University of Pretoria has to find a result from somewhere.
Luke Le Roux 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. Luvoyo Phewa 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.
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.
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 Ronaldo Maarman is on 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at University of Pretoria has been clear about where Sibusiso Mthethwa stands, which is more than many ever get.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. University of Pretoria know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
It needed Kermit Lorch to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Bloemfontein Celtic, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
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 Shandre Campbell is on it.
Riyaaz Ismail 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Luvoyo Phewa 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.60, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Marked 7.36 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, University of Pretoria had the best player on the pitch.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Luke Le Roux
Luke Daniels 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for University of Pretoria is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. University of Pretoria were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Nobody at University of Pretoria 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.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Keagan Hlatshwayo chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. SuperSport United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Risen Albert had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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.
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.
Add another name to the list: Orlando Pirates have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kermit Lorch. The answer from SuperSport United has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Themba Mphela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Thamsanqa Manyama 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.
University of Pretoria paid $360.0K 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. SuperSport United will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“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 SuperSport United 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 Haji Mnoga trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Morgan Tau is on it.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Dean Mokoena keeps the shirt for now, at SuperSport United's convenience rather than his own.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Themba Mphela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tsiki Ntsabeleng trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. SuperSport United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Morgan Tau is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Morgan Jali will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SuperSport United the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Thamsanqa Manyama 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SuperSport United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Thamsanqa Manyama 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Themba Mphela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 21. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Thamsanqa Manyama 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.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsFrom twelve yards, and Morgan Tau misses
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Jomo Cosmos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at SuperSport United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Ramahlwe Billiat was one of the reasons people came, and $920.0K does not replace that by itself.
“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 SuperSport United, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Krasnodar is saying, and nobody at SuperSport United is enjoying the guessing.
SuperSport United asked and Talleres said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
3 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.
Thamsanqa Manyama 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Renato Bruni 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Themba Mphela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Half the programme played, position 3, 31 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.