36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Free State Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Free State Stars 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 Free State Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Morgan Mothiba has improved at 25, 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Free State Stars know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Percy Billiat is on it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Williams Vilakazi 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kermit Dala. 1‑0 against Bidvest Wits, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Khama Grobler could afford to be generous.
Joseph Molangoane arrives at 38 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
In brief
The dugoutGift Mphela has become a man the manager trusts
Andile Jali 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sabelo Motsa 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Khama Grobler to a room that had heard them before.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Thamsanqa Mphela is 18, 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 Free State Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sabelo Motsa 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Williams Vilakazi is on it.
8 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Free State Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Gift Mphela in the middle of it, and Ajax Cape Town unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
That is the business done at Free State Stars until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Percy Billiat is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Sabelo Motsa 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.
Gift Mphela 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Siyanda Khumalo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: River Plate keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Andile Jali 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.
Free State Stars offered $34.0K; Golden Arrows said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kano Pillars have kept their man, and Free State Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Morgan Mothiba again, and this time the name on the line is Ashanti Gold. Free State Stars are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Itumeleng Zwane 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.
$420.0K 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Free State Stars people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $420.0K sale of Kermit Khune
He is going to Bloemfontein Celtic, the club has $420.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $35.0K — a club that wants Alwande Booysen enough to be asked twice.
Andile Jali 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.
$33.0K on the table at Golden Arrows. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Free State Stars offered $33.0K; Golden Arrows said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The phone has started ringing about Mandla Mothiba again, and this time the name on the line is ES Setif. Free State Stars are listening politely and promising nothing.
In brief
SquadWords at Free State Stars training over how hard people work
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Hearts of Oak had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sfundo Nzama is living that version at Free State Stars, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Free State Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer went to Golden Arrows 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kermit Dala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jomo Cosmos will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Free State Stars were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Tusker had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hlompho Kekana and Free State Stars agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Andile Jali 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
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.
Free State Stars asked and Golden Arrows said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Williams Vilakazi 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Kermit Dala 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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
A loan enquiry to Polokwane City: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hlompho Kekana trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Siyanda Khumalo is 33 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.