Gift Mkhize

Attacking Midfielder (L) - Chippa United
9 Dec 2040
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Marked for Gift Mkhize

737 Edition

The Chippa United Sentinel

10 Sep 2040
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad10 Sep 2040

A fracture rules Mamadou Tounkara out for 95 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chippa United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match5 Sep 2040

Chippa United bow out of the cup

Bloemfontein Celtic go through and Chippa United go home, 2‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.

Player ratings10 Sep 2040

Adam Azzouz scores twice — 8.25

Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad10 Sep 2040

A one-man rearguard from Mandla Ngcobo

There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Market10 Sep 2040

Kermit Dolly puts it in writing

“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 The request is on a desk at Chippa United, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market10 Sep 2040

Only the photograph left for Ronwen Kekana

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ronwen Kekana will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chippa United the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Match5 Sep 2040

Nobody could stop scoring

6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Chippa United and Bloemfontein Celtic in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Squad10 Sep 2040

Words at Chippa United training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hinneh Listowell 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.

Match8 Sep 2040

Hinneh Listowell rescues a point for Chippa United

It needed Hinneh Listowell to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Golden Arrows, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

In brief

Back issues
706 Edition

The Chippa United Sentinel

6 Feb 2040
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad6 Feb 2040

Lucas Felippe breaks a bone — 68 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad6 Feb 2040

A knee injury of the worst kind for Sifiso Billiat

38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chippa United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Boardroom6 Feb 2040

Morgan Kekana has until the next board meeting

What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Chippa United can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.

Boardroom6 Feb 2040

Crisis meeting at Chippa United

The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.

Player ratings6 Feb 2040

Both of them Sibongakonke Nkosi's — 8.73

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.73, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad6 Feb 2040

15 seasons of Asanele Bonani

400 appearances across 15 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Chippa United know what they have.

Squad6 Feb 2040

Gift Mkhize: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chippa United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Match4 Feb 2040

Nobody could stop scoring

6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Chippa United and Black Aces in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Match4 Feb 2040

A bad afternoon for Chippa United against Black Aces

2‑4 to Black Aces, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

In brief

686 Edition

The Chippa United Sentinel

19 Sep 2039
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match17 Sep 2039

6 matches without a win for Chippa United

The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Chippa United are no longer polite ones.

Player ratings19 Sep 2039

Sibongakonke Nkosi, 35, rolls back the years — 8.07

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.07 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Match17 Sep 2039

Chippa United are shipping goals every week

Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.

Squad19 Sep 2039

Hinneh Listowell 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.

Squad19 Sep 2039

The manager has not finished forgetting Khaya Mfecane's mistake

Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.

Match17 Sep 2039

Honours even between Chippa United and SuperSport United

2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.

Player ratings19 Sep 2039

Khaya Mfecane gives it away

There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Chippa United lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.

Squad19 Sep 2039

When it matters, Asanele Bonani 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.

Squad19 Sep 2039

No hiding place for Lebogang Lorch

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lebogang Lorch, and the manager let it.

In brief

682 Edition

The Chippa United Sentinel

22 Aug 2039
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad22 Aug 2039

Ronwen Kekana keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Chippa United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Player ratings22 Aug 2039

Age has not caught Asanele Bonani yet — 7.86

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Market22 Aug 2039

Chippa United turn down Free State Stars for Ronwen Kekana

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Match20 Aug 2039

Thamsanqa Magwaza answers Platinum Stars immediately

Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Thamsanqa Magwaza had Chippa United level again within 2 minutes, and Platinum Stars never got to play with a lead at all.

Match20 Aug 2039

Chippa United and Platinum Stars take a point apiece

It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

Squad22 Aug 2039

Gift Mkhize stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Gift Mkhize and Chippa United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad22 Aug 2039

Khaya Mfecane has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Chippa United 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.

Squad22 Aug 2039

Mandla Ngcobo gets it from the manager

“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.

Market22 Aug 2039

The Asanele Bonani story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Asanele Bonani signs something — a contract at Chippa United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

655 Edition

The Chippa United Sentinel

14 Feb 2039
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market14 Feb 2039

Ronwen Kekana has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chippa United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Match12 Feb 2039

A bad afternoon for Chippa United against Bloemfontein Celtic

0‑1 to Bloemfontein Celtic, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad14 Feb 2039

Azola Matrose has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Chippa United 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.

Player ratings14 Feb 2039

Lwanda Mbanjwa runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad14 Feb 2039

The plan did not have a place for Adam Azzouz

Nobody at Chippa United is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.

Squad14 Feb 2039

The room hears from Lwanda Mbanjwa

“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Chippa United squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.

In brief