Some of the challenges facing new man in dugout

NEW Bafana coach Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba faces many hurdles as he sets out to rebuild the national team following his appointment last week.

Here are five of his immediate challenges in SA football’s most demanding job:

Talent identification

Thanks to a new era, the topic resurfaces again after being swept under the rug by Mashaba’s predecessors, who often relied on the tried and tested, but were still shown the door.

Few would bet against Mashaba as the best man suited to tackle this crisis, given his record with the country’s youth teams. “Shakes” knows potential when he sees it, but will the high-pressured job make him question his philosophy in favour of a quick fix?

Full support

It’s no secret that Mashaba was not Safa president Danny Jordaan’s first choice. However, now that the returning Bafana coach has been asked to rebuild the team, he perhaps needs to do so at his own pace, not that of his employers, even though what they say goes.

Should Mashaba fail to guide the team to next year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco, a knee-jerk reaction to send him packing by the big boss would only take us back to square one.

Dealing with the overseasbased contingent

Yes, we need patriots. But not every friendly international is worth the hype.

In his previous stint, between 2002 and 2004, Mashaba insisted on heavyweights Benni McCarthy, Quinton Fortune and Shaun Bartlett — to name a few — honouring each call-up to the national team.

Those players were not amused.

However, he does not need to treat them with kid gloves. The coach needs to accept that, once in a while, they should be excused for a friendly encounter — against Kenya, for instance.

Anyway, South Africa now has quite a shrinking list of exports.

Player release

Who can forget the embarrassing scenes at OR Tambo Airport in 2011, when Kaizer Chiefs pulled their players off a flight to Tanzania, reasoning that the match was to be played outside the Fifa calendar?

At least Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter and his Orlando Pirates counterpart have promised full cooperation to allow their key men to team up with Bafana.

Mashaba should also consider travelling, with bags of coffee to sustain him, for consultations with his European colleagues.

Safa and PSL collaboration

The outcry for a joint liaison committee that works has long fallen on deaf ears.

It needs to work for any Bafana coach to succeed. Decision-makers are suffocating the national team’s progress.

The Premier League has allocated space for next month’s Cosafa Cup, but they shouldn’t wash their hands after that.

Mashaba, who can be vocal when unhappy, also needs to learn to use diplomacy to get his way. After all, nobody is the enemy here.