The Siya crew spoke to a top agent in SA to get their expert understanding on what’s going on. For obvious reasons, the agent will remain anonymous.

“With Chiefs and Khama Billiat, I think Chiefs really need to apply themselves with this one. If you look at the player and his age and also assessing his contribution to the team … I think last season was one of his better seasons. He had a good few quiet seasons before that, but last season you could see the quality coming through from him.

“The biggest decision that Chiefs has is around his salary. Rumours are that his salary is north of R500 000 a month, so that’s quite a lot. For me, it would make sense for them to hold onto him. He probably has one or two goods seasons in him after this one because he remains a threat constantly.

“I don’t think the club would be wise to offer the same salary though. If they do offer him a contract, it will be a reduced one and I think that would make sense for the club. If you look at tying the player down for one or two more years, at a reduced salary, it would free up some budget and look at securing your development players who will shine. So, they would look at securing them for a long-term contracts using that money they would save from reducing Billiat’s salary.

“I think he has a role to play there, but at a reduced salary. In short, it would make sense to keep him for that experience and for the transition phase, but if they do it, it would probably be done at a lower monthly salary.”

While Chiefs are yet to make a final decision on Billiat, they cannot be ruled out of offering the former Zimbabwean international a new deal, with the possibility of a salary cut. Billiat is on a high package and reducing the salary would give Amakhosi some room to free up some funds to be used elsewhere. There is, however, no guarantee that Billiat would accept a salary drop, though there are hardly any teams in the PSL that would be able to afford what he is currently on.