‘The chairman is bonkers’ — Five times Stuart Baxter made people hot under the collar

Stuart Baxter's recent comments after Kaizer Chiefs' shocking 1-0 defeat to SuperSport United in a DStv Premiership game are believed to among the reasons behind his departure from Amakhosi.

It was not the first time his statements made people angry.

TimesLIVE looks at five controversial comments made by the former Chiefs, SuperSport and Bafana Bafana coach.

1. The 68-year-old coach's love-hate relationship with SA football lovers is not new as he once hit back hard at the “negative” 56-million South Africans who were eager to chop off heads during the 2019 Afcon in Egypt.

"I think we need to get a touch of reality. That was a top class [Ivory Coast] team we were playing. It annoys me sometimes when we hear of the 56-million behind us. When in reality there's not 56-million behind us. There's 56-million waiting to chop our heads off.

2. After failing to guide Bafana to the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia, calls for Baxter’s sacking grew. However,  it was the mentor’s reply that made South Africans angry when he said qualifying for the World Cup wasn't his mandate as Bafana coach.

“My mandate was never about 'qualify for the World Cup or you go home'. I want to make sure we are making progress," Baxter said after the game.

3. Baxter’s coaching journey took him to India where he signed a two-year contract with Odisha FC in June 2020.

But the Briton only lasted nine months before he was sacked by the club for his outrageous and insensitive comments about rape.

“You need decisions to go your way and we needed a penalty. I think one of my players would have to rape someone or get raped himself if he was going to get a penalty," Baxter said during a post-match interview.

4. After parting ways with Amakhosi in 2021, Baxter moved to a Turkish club Gençlerbirliği SK where he lasted for less than three months.

The coach called then club owner İlhan Cavcav, who has since died, "bonkers".

 “The chairman calls me in and rants at me, even going on about my family. Then he stops ranting and simply says ‘OK, you can pack your things and go’. I’ve never met anything like him. He couldn’t even remember my name,” Baxter said, according to Kickoff.com.

“He’s bonkers, off the wall. He had me in meetings every day. Injured players, he’d force them to attend four sessions a day with a personal trainer.

“The club’s general manager comes to me and says ‘What now?’. I say: ‘You tell me, do I have a job or not?’ He replies: ‘I don’t know’.

“I tell you, anything I experienced in SA is nothing like this. That was like Sunday school in comparison.”

5.  His latest comment, “If the fans want me go I will go and I’m the only coach who  has given this club any form of success in the last 20 years”, after the 1-0 defeat to SuperSport United is the main reason for his departure at Chiefs.

“I don’t have any message to the fans because if they want me to go, I will go. If the chairman says to me ‘Stuart, I don’t think you are doing a good job,’ then I will walk,” Baxter said.

“I’ve got no problem doing that. I will walk myself if I don’t think I’m affecting the team in a positive way, I will walk. No problem.

“I’m the only coach who has given this club any success over the last 20 years.

“And I’ve got to go because we’ve dominated the game and we lost 1-0. I’ve got to listen to them.

“They are fans and have the right to say exactly what they want. If that reflects what the chairman thinks, what the players think and what most fans think, then maybe I should walk.

“Obviously, that’s not something a group of fans will decide. The football club will decide, or I will decide and if I get that feeling, of course I will walk.”