Baxter names his 22-man squad for Afcon qualifier
JOHANNESBURG: MORE than 15 months after he was appointed Bafana Bafana coach, Stuart Baxter is still bouncing from one assistant coach to another.
Yesterday he said the hold up was due to budget constraints at the South African Football Association as well as the difficulty of landing an ideal candidate to be his right-hand man.
Baxter seemed keen on former Bafana and Manchester United midfielder Quinton Fortune, who was part of the technical team at some World Cup qualifiers last year. But it is believed there were deadlocks in negotiations.
Thabo Senong has continued in his capacity as a young member of Baxter’s technical team and was in the same role under Shakes Mashaba, who was replaced by the Scotsman more than a year ago.
But Senong, who is also in charge of the under-20 side, is seen more as a third assistant than Baxter’s No.2.
“We do have challenges there,” Baxter revealed while naming his 22-man squad for next week’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Libya in Durban.
“Some people we recommended, but the process has not been as easy as it should be. There has been a lot happening. As you know we had an election year and then we’ve had budget issues and we couldn’t throw the net out. But at the end of the day it is up to Safa to sift through my recommendations and for the decision to be made later – maybe after these qualifiers.”
Baxter was also recently embarrassed by a breakdown in communication between the federation and Orlando Pirates, who were asked to release their assistant coach Rhulani Mokwena to join the national team camp in Zambia during the Four Nations tournament back in March.
Mokwena was withdrawn from the traveling party on the eve of the competition, Pirates citing a busy domestic league schedule, while Baxter was honest enough to admit their request was not properly communicated with the Buccaneers.
It is perhaps another reason for the delay in Baxter finally having a full complement of backroom staff.
“It’s not easy to just take anyone from the (PSL) clubs,” the coach said. “There are political constraints within our game as well, and by that I mean there will be questions about who you take and why. We have to sit and negotiate and dovetail everything. We don’t have a budget like Cameroon, who have recently brought in Clarence Seedorf as coach and Patrick Kluivert as his assistant. But yes, we need to nail it down as soon as possible.”
For the home game against Libya, and quite possibly for the rest of the Afcon qualification, Baxter will have Senong and under-17 coach Molefi Ntseki in the dugout.
But the fact is they are not his preferred sounding boards.
“I like the people I have been working with,” Baxter said. “So I wouldn’t say anyone at Safa is letting me down or anything like that. Thabo and Molefi are doing well. As soon as possible we need to tie it down. I am not that frustrated, but it will be less so once I know we have found the right candidate. It is not easy to negotiate with someone who may actually want to be somewhere else, that is part of the reasons why this is taking a bit long.”
Bafana host Libya at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on September 8 and round off the year with two more qualifiers against Seychelles in Johannesburg on October 13 before playing the same team away three days later. MANCHESTER United must stick with Jose Mourinho despite the club’s dismal start to the Premier League campaign, former defender Gary Neville has said.
Monday’s 3-0 home defeat to Tottenham was the second loss of United’s opening three matches and they now languish in 13th place ahead of next weekend’s trip to Burnley.
Mourinho signed a contract extension in January to keep him at United until 2020 and Neville said he must be given the chance to turn the team’s fortunes around.
“We saw Louis van Gaal sacked after an FA Cup final victory, we saw David Moyes sacked with four games to go of a season, so we are no longer talking about a club that is behaving as it has historically done,” he told Sky’s Monday Night Football.
“I accept these are different times and I accept the difficulties and challenges, but my honest view as I stand here now is that Ed Woodward gave him a contract last season ... he should see that contract through to the end and do the job.
“You can’t keep jumping around with managers... “