The Free State Stars Chronicle
Match4 Aug 2031
Free State Stars sink to position 16
18 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market4 Aug 2031
Teboho Mothiba hands in a written request
“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.
Market4 Aug 2031
Only the photograph left for Thulani Phiri
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thulani Phiri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Free State Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets4 Aug 2031
Onele Rulwana due for a Free State Stars medical
Everything agreed with Kaizer Chiefs, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets4 Aug 2031
Free State Stars bid $120.0K for Gift Tau
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.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Words at Free State Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronwen Furman 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.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Siyabonga Erasmus signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Siyabonga Erasmus and Free State Stars agree another 4 years.
The dugout4 Aug 2031
When it matters, Happy Mashiane plays
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.
The dugout4 Aug 2031
Teboho Williams knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Teboho Williams trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
- The dugout The manager plants his flag on Percy Mothiba
- Squad Teboho Billiat is fit again