Marked for Lebogang Williams
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Jan 2027
Percy Grobler breaks a bone — 63 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad4 Jan 2027
31 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad4 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bidvest Wits this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rivaldo Coetzee was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
At 14 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market4 Jan 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Thamsanqa Zungu has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market4 Jan 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sifiso Manyama has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match7 Nov 2026
6 matches without a win for Bidvest Wits
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Bidvest Wits are no longer polite ones.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bidvest Wits have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Happy Mashiane and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kamohelo Mokotjo, and the manager let it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Bidvest Wits told Siyethemba Sithebe something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Too much change too quickly at Bidvest Wits
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.” Hlompho Modiba chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 48. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The deal with University of Pretoria 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Bidvest Wits asked and Platinum 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Sipho Mbule scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Jomo Cosmos, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 2‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan move for Lucas Gaona is in the works
Bidvest Wits have made the call to Temperley. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Bidvest Wits 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Reyaad Pieterse 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Bidvest Wits asked and Junior said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ramahlwe Grobler is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Lebogang Williams has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Evidence Furman has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luther Modiba is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.22 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.