JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – AUGUST 16: Coach Stuart Baxter of Bafana Bafana during the South African national soccer team training session at FNB Stadium on August 16, 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images)
Kaizer Chiefs new coach: Is Stuart Baxter closer to rejoining the Amakhosi?
A familiar face may be coming back to Soweto.
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – AUGUST 16: Coach Stuart Baxter of Bafana Bafana during the South African national soccer team training session at FNB Stadium on August 16, 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images)
As we enter a third month of guessing who the Kaizer Chiefs new coach will be, the rumour mill has shifted its focus towards Stuart Baxter.
His discussion with Soccer Laduma this week sounded more like a job interview for a return to the Naturena.
The Bafana Bafana coach enjoyed a successful three-year spell with the Glamour Boys before he took on the national team job. Despite contrasting fortunes with South Africa, Baxter is still highly revered by fans of the Soweto giants.
Is Stuart Baxter going to be Kaizer Chiefs new coach?
As it stands, nothing has officially indicated that the job is his. Both parties have been extremely coy about the persistent rumours, but it seems that there’s smoke behind this potential fire.
Baxter told SL that the next Chiefs coach has a lot of things to consider before they put pen to paper. In fact, it sounded like he’d been mulling over the suggestions himself for quite a while:
“I think the coach needs to ask himself; can I deal with the pressure? Can I produce a brand of football that the people want to see and can I win things? Don’t just think can I pick up that cheque at the end of the month because that’s doomed to failure and the club needs to look at the same thing.
“Is this coach one that will handle the pressure, will handle the big players, will be able to produce younger players, will he be able to give us trophies, will he be able to give us consistency and is he a Sam Allardyce or is he a Pep Guardiola and which one of those do we want?”
Will Baxter leave South Africa role?
Was this Baxter’s come and get me plea? His interview has been well received and fans seem to think a potential switch would be good news for them.
However, Chiefs supporters will have to do what they’ve done since Steve Komphela departed before winter: Sit and wait. The saga hasn’t come to an end just yet and Baxter still remains as the coach of Bafana Bafana.
