Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Jomo Cosmos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Chippa United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Mamelodi Sundowns have accepted the money. What Chippa United do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chippa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liberty Professionals have kept their man, and Chippa United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A 1‑0 win over Platinum Stars, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
In brief
SquadWords at Chippa United training over how hard people work
Squad6 new faces, and Chippa United are still learning each other
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Justice Figuareido provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
1 for Goodman Mosele, marked 7.87, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Goodman Mosele 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Chippa United and Ajax Cape Town, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
A 4‑2 win over Ajax Cape Town, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Siphelele Mthembu was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $740.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
At 22 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.
0‑3 against Kaizer Chiefs, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chippa United can pretend not to have heard.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Wandile Duba has, at Chippa United, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Chippa United had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Mamelodi Sundowns, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Chippa United asked and Landskrona BoIS said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Evidence Mokoena 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sifiso Grobler 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dean Phiri is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Goodman Mosele 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.
Chippa United asked and Estudiantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Chippa United have made the call to Mamelodi Sundowns. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Chippa United have made the call to Liberty Professionals. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Chippa United has been clear about where Ridwaan Cerfonteyn stands, which is more than many ever get.