On page 27 of this edition, we carry a story about the countries that have managed to qualify for the holy grail that is the Fifa World Cup.
On the same page, we carry a story where Stuart Little, eish, this typewriter, I mean Baxter, blames everybody but himself for failing to take Bafana Bafana to the Russia 2018 promised land.
It would be stupid of me to quit my job, he says.
Each to his own and God for us all, I say.
What is actually stupid is an abrogation of responsibility on the part of the coach and his lousy attempt at absolving himself from the mess.
In the aftermath of failing to secure South Africa's place at the Russia 2018 World Cup, Baxter bamboozled us in a lengthy rigmarole about how things have stayed stale in local soccer since the last time HE failed to qualify Bafana for the 2006 World Cup.The 10 points below show - oh, let's keep with the theme, shall we? - the stupidity of Baxter being deliberately disingenuous:
1. Mamelodi Sundowns won the Confederation of African Football (Caf) Champions League in 2016.
2. Sundowns won the Caf Super Cup in 2016.
3. Sundowns were crowned Caf club of the year at the Caf awards in Abuja, Nigeria, in December 2016.
4. Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane won the Caf coach of the year at the same shindig.
5. Orlando Pirates fell at the final hurdle of the Champions League in 2013.
6. Pirates reached the final of the Caf Confederation Cup in 2015.
7. Amajita, the under-20 national team, qualified for the 2017 Under-20 World Cup in South Korea.
8. Amajimbos, the 2017 Under-17 national team, qualified for the Under-17 World Cup in Chile.
9. The under-23s qualified for the 2014 Rio Olympics.
10. Even Banyana Banyana joined in on the Olympics in samba land.What is stupid is losing four out of five 2018 World Cup qualifiers - that is 12 points down the drain - and he has the nerve to tell us that no one said anything about qualifying for the World Cup.
Such bulldust would have been a clever thing to say if the man born in Wolverhampton had signed up for a marbles team.
Only someone who has lost their marbles would lose sleep over not making it to a Marbles World Games.
What is even more stupid is the South African Football Association (Safa) settling for someone who clearly didn't merit the position in terms of their own criteria.
Remember, one of their crucial criteria was that they wanted a coach with a track record of qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations.
Remember the names that were available.
One was the cool, calm and self-assured Herve Renard, the Frenchman who was the national boss of Zambia who took them to the 2012 Afcon gong, making them only the second southern African side (after South Africa in 1996) to conquer the continent.
Two years later and stationed in west Africa, the man in a white shirt repeated the feat when he led the Ivory Coast to the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations...