Johannesburg – Stuart Baxter says a new contract he signed with Kaizer Chiefs on Thursday didn’t come with a new mandate, reasoning he didn’t need to be told winning trophies is key at Amakhosi but pledging he’ll strive to make the club play more attractive football.
“If you’re at a club like Chiefs, you’ve got the same ambitions every year. You can’t change them by the season,” said Baxter hours after concluding a two-year extension that will keep him at Naturena at least until the 2015/2016 season.
The Briton had a surprisingly fruitful first season with Amakhosi, ending their seven years without the league championship and also bagging the Nedbank Cup to complete the double.
But this season has been a bit of a challenge, with Chiefs knocked out of the MTN8 and the Telkom Knockout without reaching the final. Baxter, though, said the Chiefs hierarchy understand he’s in it for the long haul. “You can never be satisfied if you win two trophies. But at the same time you don’t become panicky if you don’t win anything. The aim is to make the club improve, and I’d like to see the type of football that the fans will enjoy watching. If the football is entertaining to watch I’ll be satisfied.”
The former Bafana Bafana coach added he was delighted to conclude talks with Kaizer Motaung and the Chiefs board six months before his current contract expires. “I’m pleased the club is committed to continuity. I’m happy to be here and I believe we can forge ahead and achieve a lot.”
Chiefs owner Motaung was equally pleased: “Continuity is important in this kind of set-up,” he told the club website. “We are delighted that we could extend the relationship. It means we will be able to achieve much more and be able to reach our goals according to the plans that we have set. In this kind of business, you need to be able to look at not today but how you progress into the future. It is about sustainability.”
Baxter, meanwhile, conceded the cancellation of Absa Premiership fixtures this week was not ideal. “It just adds to the problems we’ve had this season, although this time it’s understandable because you had to do it for Madiba (Nelson Mandela). We can’t complain but this season we really haven’t been able to build any kind of momentum. But I guess every team has the same problem.”
Chiefs face a tough final week of this year, with three matches in the space of six days starting on Monday, when they host the University of Pretoria at FNB Stadium.
On Thursday they travel to KwaZulu Natal for a clash with Golden Arrows before completing the year with a match in the same province against AmaZulu at Moses Mabhida Stadium next Sunday.
The Star