Marked for Thabo Molea
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Apr 2027
Mooketsi Phindela damages knee ligaments — 51 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 51 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.
Match5 Apr 2027
Jomo Cosmos are in real trouble now
Position 16, 11 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Lebogang Erasmus has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Jomo Cosmos may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ntando Tshwana is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Judas Moseamedi 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Isheanesu Mauchi has improved at 24, which nobody expected
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.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Sifiso Nkosi 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.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Judas Moseamedi asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jan 2027
17 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Jomo Cosmos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match2 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑5 by SuperSport United, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad4 Jan 2027
There were 9 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Lebogang Erasmus has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Jomo Cosmos can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Jomo Cosmos
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Jomo Cosmos is running low.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Judas Moseamedi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Dec 2026
13 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad7 Dec 2026
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Jomo Cosmos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The scrutiny sharpens at Jomo Cosmos
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Jomo Cosmos is running low.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Thabo Molea: 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.” Jomo Cosmos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Judas Moseamedi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match5 Dec 2026
The goals have deserted Jomo Cosmos
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Jomo Cosmos can tell you which week it ends in.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Judas Moseamedi
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Jomo Cosmos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jomo Cosmos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Judas Moseamedi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Jomo Cosmos are still strangers to each other
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Jomo Cosmos told Isheanesu Mauchi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jomo Cosmos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Thabo Molea has improved at 26, which nobody expected
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The decline has begun for Thomas Kgope
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Jomo Cosmos is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The dugout5 Oct 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.