Baxter ‘will get it right at Bafana’

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Former Bafana Bafana striker Shaun Bartlett (right) believes Stuart Baxter’s experience in the local league, combined with his meticulous research into opponents before a game, can help him succeed in his second spell as national team head coach.

Baxter starts his new role against Nigeria on Saturday in a 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Uyo. On announcing his squad for that game, Baxter revealed he had a Manchester United scout watching the Super Eagles when they played Togo in a friendly last week in Paris.

“He is one of the coaches who go into the smallest details, he analyses a team to the “T”, he is a coach who is professional in the way that he prepares the team, he plans ahead and makes sure he covers everything,” said Bartlett, who played for Baxter in his first spell as Bafana head coach, between 2004 and 2005.

Baxter resigned in November 2005, but returned to South Africa in 2012 and won two league titles, two Nedbank Cups and an MTN8 coaching in the Premier Soccer League at Kaizer Chiefs, and more recently SuperSport United.

“I think the fact that he (Baxter) has had a lot of success so far with local teams shows the type of coach he is, driven as far as ambition is concerned, he has coached a lot of local players which is a good thing, and the dynamics that he had learned will work for him moving forward,” added Bartlett, who is now head coach at NFD team University of Pretoria.

In Baxter’s first spell, even with strikers like Bartlett and Benni McCarthy at his disposal, Bafana failed to qualify for the 2006 Fifa World Cup in Germany. Bafana did qualify for the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, but Baxter still quit. It hasn’t got any better for Bafana in the subsequent years, meanwhile, with the side only playing in one more World Cup, the one they hosted in 2010, and failing to qualify for three of the last five Africa Cup of Nations finals.

Bartlett believes players have lost pride in playing for the national team in the past few years, with players withdrawing from the squad and not honouring their call-ups despite being released by their clubs. But he thinks the situation will improve under his former mentor.