FINDING THE NET
MNINAWA NTLOKO: Returning Baxter had better be a good match for Bafana
Blistering backlash to the return of Stuart Baxter sets a high bar for Safa and the national side’s coach
The mixed reaction to the return of Stuart Baxter to the Bafana Bafana coaching job he had quit under a cloud 12 years ago felt a little like déjà vu to this man from the rolling hills of Tsomo. The then unknown Briton faced a similarly frosty reaction after his first appointment in March 2004 and he told me at the time, he was not surprised by the negative sentiment. "It would be conceited not to be surprised," he said. "That would presuppose that I am one of the few coaches known all over the world." Fast-forward to May 2017 and, you do not need to be a nuclear physicist to work out that his return to Bafana has once again split opinion down the middle. Baxter himself must be well aware that his reappointment as successor to sacked Ephraim "Shakes" Mashaba has polarised SA in the same way President Jacob Zuma’s sacking of Pravin Gordhan and replacement with Malusi Gigaba did in March. If the backlash on social media, the furious calls to radio stations and the angry responses to t...
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