Soccer

Stuart Baxter's road to nowhere: ‘It’s stupid to say I should quit’

19 November 2017 - 00:00 By SAZI HADEBE

Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter does not see any reason why he should voluntarily vacate his position after producing one of South Africa's disastrous and spectacular attempts to qualify for a Fifa Word Cup.
Instead of accepting his shortcomings - it is not the first time he has failed, he did the same in 2005 - he claimed to have had many people, including former Senegalstar striker El Hadji Diouf, telling him he was on the right track and must just keep going because he was "likely to win the Afcon with Bafana".
In an impromptu and highly charged interview at OR Tambo International Airport on the team's return from Dakar in Senegal on Thursday night, Baxter exploded when I fired the first question, having indicated that he would give just two minutes of his time to the four reporters because it was not a scheduled interview.
MANDATE TO REBUILD
"It's a stupid question," he charged at me for asking why he should stick around after losing four of the five World Cup qualifiers he was in charge of.
The four defeats saw Bafana finishing at the bottom of Group D with four points - the first time Bafana had collected this pathetic number of points in World Cup qualifiers.
"If my mandate was, 'If you don't qualify for the World Cup you'll be sacked', then I would walk. But that was not the case," he said. "My mandate was to try to rebuild and re-establish a way of playing, which I'm trying to do.
"And every time you have a defeat you are hoping as a coach that people will look and see what is happening.
"And if what is happening is a disaster, if you're looking at the way we play and you say we were rubbish and Senegal were a different class to us, if that's the case, I would look at myself long and hard."
At this point Baxter was fuming and having a heated exchange with me, complaining about my line of questioning, while also accusing the Sunday Times of always pushing an agenda against him.
TREASONOUS REPORTING
This robust exchange also prompted SA Football Association's communications manager, Dominic Chimhavi, to tell Baxter to end the interview there and then, claiming that I was provoking the coach.
But to his credit, Baxter managed to calm down and regain his composure, telling Chimhavi he would continue.
"You're [pointing a finger at me] the one asking me if the situation is not a disaster. Back-paddle a bit. When did I come in? I came in the middle of the World Cup qualifiers [not quite in the middle, because Bafana had played only two matches out of six and had four points]. And have we played terrible in the last two games?
"Diouf came to our hotel [in Senegal] and said: 'For goodness sake, keep going because with this team you've got a chance to win Afcon'.
"You [pointing at me again] obviously know better [than Diouf]."
It was at this point that Baxter went on to accuse the Sunday Times of not ever supporting his cause.
"I'm standing here trying to give an interview to a newspaper that has tried to destabilise everything that we do from the beginning."
That tirade fuelled Chimhavi into action, trying once more to coerce Baxter to end the interview because he felt I was being confrontational. To our relief, sanity prevailed as Baxter again chose to continue to state his case.
"I'm trying very hard to answer the questions sensibly. I know this will end up being spectacular and you will be calling for my head," he told me.
In his attempt to blame everyone but himself for Bafana's dismal campaign, Baxter pointed at his not having had enough time with the players as the main reason for the team not getting positive results.
"Working with this squad I've had 40 days," he said.
"I was thrown in the middle of a World Cup qualifiers. I had zero time to prepare.
"I think we played very well against Nigeria [Afcon qualifier], very well against Burkina Faso [Bafana won 3-1, which was Baxter's only victory]. I think we played well against Senegal [in two back-to-back losses]."
Amazingly, Baxter did somehow offer to take some flack for the Cape Verde defeats.
"The two games that I'm really disappointed with are the Cape Verde games. Now, you've got to ask yourself, am I totally responsible for those two defeats to Cape Verde? If the answer to that is yes, then that's it, and I will take that on the chin.
I DON'T NEED TO STAY HERE
"But when you ask me questions like: 'Do you think you're the right man?' and you're basing that on the four games, I'm saying if there's a bigger picture anywhere on the South African horizon, then people will see this, like how Diouf did. He said 'I'm looking at the way you're playing. You played better than us [Senegal]'.
"If I thought at any time that I'm not the right man to develop South African football, I will walk away.
"I don't need to stay here, I can get a job elsewhere. So all your shouting and screaming that everybody in South Africa is asking that question, I don't know if they are. They may do after they read your newspaper, but certainly we've had so many people that have contacted us and said, 'Keep going, you're on the right track'.
COMPLETE CHICKEN FROM ONE FEATHER
"Well, I don't know, maybe that's not all the people in South Africa."
Baxter was asked if he still had the confidence of the players.
"I think you've got to go and ask the players," he said.
"You have to ask the players. The players know me and the players know that they've played really well against Nigeria and Burkina Faso.
"We're talking about how many games in total, six? I don't know. If the players lose confidence so quickly then maybe they need to look at themselves a little bit.
"But I think if you think about the total of the games and days we've worked together, then maybe the only people that are negative about this would probably be the ones who didn't play. They will feel hard done too, but that's normal.
"We are making a complete chicken out of one feather here. We are taking it from being a disastrous start to players losing confidence, we may go as far as we like."
Baxter appeared to contradict himself on the issue of mandate and results when he was asked if it was now a must that he qualify for the Afcon.
"In my job it's a must-everything. You lose four games and the whole of South Africa is calling for my head. So if you think in that way, every game is a must.
"We've just played Burkina Faso, that game was a must. We had these two Senegal games, they were a must.
"So to win Afcon, qualifying for Afcon certainly is our goal. To go on and do well in Afcon is certainly our goal."
Ironically, Baxter, who threw out the issue of development while fighting for a spot in the World Cup, said it was important to strengthen development for Bafana Bafana to improve.
"There's also an element of development going on at this time, we're trying to find a way forward for South African football," he said.
"We have to develop South African youngsters to get into the Afcon squad. But I've learnt that you're judged solely by the results, not even [by] how you play."
At this time Baxter looked my way, saying: "You'd hope that's not the case [to be judged by results] from sensible people."
Baxter accused me of revealing what I wanted him to say about his future following the fateful campaign in World Cup qualifiers. Instead of answering the questions, Baxter asked me when last Bafana had qualified for the World Cup. I told him it was in 2002, and it's also worth adding that it was Baxter who had coached the team that failed to make the cut for Germany in 2006.
INSINCERE APOLOGY
For all his failures, Baxter still could not find courage to apologise to South Africans until one journalist asked him on Thursday if he felt the need to do so. And the apology that came out of his mouth hardly showed sincerity nor remorse.
"I think you should [apologise]. You know our ambition was to take South Africa to a major tournament," Baxter said.
"I think we should all apologise because our ambition was to get to a tournament, which is a World Cup. But to be talking as if we were Brazil or Italy, we have to be a little bit more humble.
"The reason we have not been able to qualify is because we've had no structures, no development programmes in place. And during the time you try to qualify, we are going to keep changing coaches because someone is saying this is such a disaster.
KEEP A HANDLE ON THINGS
"In our desire and in our disappointments we have to try to keep a handle on what we're actually trying to do.
"What we're trying to do is to put down those structures and those development programmes and try to recruit people that can see a little bit of a bigger picture and not react every time there's one result that we don't like.
"We are never going to get further than that because we have people waiting at the airport asking, 'How can you have the confidence to continue coaching?'
"Well, probably because I have been coaching and I have been successful everywhere I have been.
"The only time I haven't been successful is with Bafana Bafana."
Just when I was about to unleash a parting salvo as to why Baxter still felt the need to continue coaching the national team when he was admitting himself that he had failed, Chimhavi this time succeeded in whisking the Briton away.
hadebes@tiso.blackstar.co.za..

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