MOGAMAD ALLIE: Cape Town Spurs in a panic after the worst start to a PSL season

It’s not often trigger-happy Chippa United is beaten to the draw, but this season newly promoted Cape Town Spurs have done just that by showing Shaun Bartlett the door on Monday, just two months into the new season. 

The writing had been on the wall for the former Bafana Bafana striker who presided over a record seven consecutive defeats on the club’s return to the Premier Soccer League (PSL). The unwanted landmark for the poorest start to a PSL season had been held by Umtata Bush Bucks who lost six in a row in the 1999/00 season.

Imbalabala, though, played those first six games away from home while their ground at Umtata’s Independence Stadium was being renovated. If it’s of any comfort to the Spurs hierarchy Bucks managed to finish in a comfortable 13th place in what was then an 18-team league, meaning they had four additional games in which to extricate themselves from their early-season troubles. 

Of course, his early season departure will sting Bartlett, especially as it comes less than four months after the big celebrations in Pietermaritzburg immediately after the club won promotion to the PSL via the playoffs.   

Lightning has now struck twice for Bafana Bafana’s second-highest goal scorer. Remember he didn’t even get to coach Golden Arrows on their return to the PSL in 2015 after first going down with a team that had already been on its way to the National First Division (NFD) and then guiding them to promotion in the following season. He was replaced by Serame Letsoaka just before the start of the new season.

This time Bartlett first saved a beleaguered Spurs from relegation after joining the club in October 2021 and then piloted the club’s long-awaited return to the top flight at the end of last season.

At least he should sleep more peacefully now that the headaches caused by trying to figure out how to conjure up his first win of the new season are over. Even if he had continued he would have found it difficult to irrigate the barren run with a squad that are clearly not equipped to cope with the step-up to the higher level.     

Life in the Premiership was always going to be tough for Spurs given the failure of the club’s hierarchy to bolster a squad that have some promising players but which needed the quality, nous and experience of battle-hardened campaigners to help bridge the gap between the second tier and the PSL.

Bartlett admitted as much when he alluded to the lack of activity in the transfer market before the start of the season.

“We’ve always been a club that promotes young players and not go too much into the market. But sometimes a level up is maybe too much for certain players. Those are things we have to assess and see where we can make changes.” 

Even Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler was moved to come out in support of his former Bafana teammate when his team comfortably claimed bragging rights after Saturday’s derby at the Cape Town Stadium.

“I don’t like talking about other teams but I really feel for Shaun. They needed to bring in a few more experienced players to help Shaun because I think he’s a good coach. Unfortunately we’re in the business of ‘now’ — we have to deliver results now,” Tinkler opined. 

In the end Bartlett, who was a member of Mich d’Avray’s Spurs squad that won the league and cup double in 1995, was relieved of his misery when the club announced his departure on Monday.   

Lots can still happen in the 23 league games that remain before the season ends on May 20 but even at this early stage, much like Mamelodi Sundowns look to be marching to another title, Spurs appear to be well on course to become the first team since Highlands Park in 2017 to make an immediate return to the second tier.

Having already claimed the unwanted record of worst start, Spurs are now in danger of overtaking Mother City, who hold the record for the two longest runs of consecutive defeats in the PSL — nine and 13 chalked up during their miserable campaign in 1999/00 when they managed only two wins en route to the lowest-ever points haul of 10. 

The huge task of the equivalent of appointing a new captain to steer the Titanic has been handed, for the moment, to the unknown Sean Connor, who was unveiled as the club’s technical director at the weekend.

The record of the 56-year-old Northern Irishman hardly inspires confidence. He has limited experience of the often peculiar nuances of the SA football landscape, having lasted only six weeks into a three-year contract with Black Leopards, then playing in the NFD in 2014.

Two years earlier he spent eight months with Zimbabwe side CAPS United before being fired. Bringing in someone with negligible experience of the local game and players at a time when the club needs an immediate and radical turnaround has every prospect of backfiring.

Connor, who will take up the head coach role until a new appointment is made, will need the famed luck of the Irish if Spurs are to end their wretched run.