Position 2, 51 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking 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 Orlando Pirates this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The name of Melusi Buthelezi has come up in conversations Orlando Pirates were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bruce Bvuma and Orlando Pirates agree another 2 years.
131 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kaizer Chiefs lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
$860.0K is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
University of Pretoria will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Kaizer Chiefs were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Fiacre Ntwari was one of the reasons people came, and $860.0K does not replace that by itself.
Brandon Petersen 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.
Orlando Pirates paid $370.0K and Kaizer Chiefs took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
In brief
SquadRushwin Dortley falls out with a teammate over standards
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Rushwin Dortley at his very best
The offer from Ferencvaros for Oswin Appollis was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yanela Mbuthuma provided it, and the 8.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The chase for Fiacre Ntwari ended with $860.0K changing hands and Kaizer Chiefs out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
24 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The fee is $370.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Kaizer Chiefs drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Thalente Mbatha 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 terraces17 Jan 2028
Orlando Pirates spend $860.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $860.0K for Fiacre Ntwari, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Deon Hotto 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kaizer Chiefs can pretend not to have heard.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Etiosa Ighodaro provided it, and the 8.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kaizer Chiefs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Kaizer Chiefs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rushwin Dortley 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.
Maritzburg United will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Emmanuel Jalai has pre-agreed a move to Kaizer Chiefs, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
A 2‑1 win over Polokwane City, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Kaizer Chiefs has been clear about where Zitha Kwinika stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
SquadThe team sheet said everything about Lebohang Maboe
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kaizer Chiefs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kaizer Chiefs can pretend not to have heard.
Brandon Petersen 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
A 1‑0 win over SuperSport United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Kaizer Chiefs know it.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Shaun Els’s exile
The offer from Orlando Pirates for Nkanyiso Shinga was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kaizer Chiefs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Kaizer Chiefs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rushwin Dortley 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mduduzi Shabalala 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.
$1.4M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Makabi Lilepo was one of the reasons people came, and $1.4M does not replace that by itself.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Lwanda Mbanjwa is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kaizer Chiefs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Kaizer Chiefs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rushwin Dortley 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kaizer Chiefs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
Still no offer on the table, and Bruce Bvuma’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kaizer Chiefs have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kaizer Chiefs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Bradley Cross 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.
0‑3 against Orlando Pirates, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Brandon Petersen 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Kaizer Chiefs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lebohang Maboe 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kaizer Chiefs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kaizer Chiefs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.