What Baxter said on his return
Stuart Baxter gave a wide-ranging interview when he was unveiled as the new coach at Kaizer Chiefs for his second spell, touching on a number of subjects, including his future plans. Here is what he had to say.
What are your thoughts about the new 2021-22 season?
There will be a lot of expectation, I will have to manage that. It is a tougher league [now], the league has improved in terms of the bottom teams, they are all tight games. The game has moved forward and changed. I remember when I came last time and spoke about ‘transitions’, people laughed and asked what they were. Now they are an integral part of everybody’s game. I have to find what is new and what can I use that will bring us an advantage and that edge. It will be a challenge, but an interesting one.
Chiefs have not won a trophy since you left, the longest barren spell in the club’s history …
When I came here last time [2012], I know Chiefs had not won anything for quite a while too. I knew winning something was a priority for them. But I did not look only at winning trophies, I was trying to build a team, I was trying to bond with the supporters, trying to help us find an identity. I think that will be the same again now, if we can keep our eyes firmly on the pathway and not the destination. That will be very important for Chiefs right now. We are the hunter, gradually we became the hunted during my first stint. I thought the boys did fantastically well, the whole club handled the success very well.
You had that amazing 25-game unbeaten run in your previous stint, you must be looking to restore that reputation for Chiefs as a team that is hard to beat…
The streak was … again, I don’t think any of us were thinking about the streak. We had games of football to go out and win. It became that teams played us with a little bit of the hand-break on, and if we scored [first] they believed they would lose. We have to recreate that … no crowds have been a handicap for the previous coaches to work with, and a handicap for the supporters to bond with the players. Gradually, as we get back to normality, and it won’t be immediately, we have got to rebuild that. That is one of the strengths of Kaizer Chiefs.
You will be reunited with your former Bafana Bafana