Johannesburg - SuperSport United coach Stuart Baxter has issued a warning to the players he worked with at Kaizer Chiefs that they won’t just walk into the starting XI because of their past relationship.
The mentor said this in Randburg when Matsatsantsa a Pitori announced the signing of Tefu Mashamaite on a two-year-contract with an option for a year.
Mashamaite re-unites with Baxter via Sweden where he won the Swedish Cup with Hacken in the one year he spent with them. The centreback will also re-unite with Reyaad Pieterse, Reneilwe Letsholonyane, Keagan Ritchie and Morgan Gould who joined the Tshwane side straight from Amakhosi in this transfer window.
There’s also Kingston Nkhatha who jumped ship last year, stretching the tally of players that Baxter worked with at Chiefs to six.
“Having players that I worked with before is both positive and negative,” Baxter said.
“The positive is that they know what I want. They know the structure and the principles that I work with. It’s not going to take that long to get them to gel with the other players. But on the other hand you have to get past that familiarity, people maybe thinking that I have my old coach who likes me and I am comfortable.
“You have to get past that. We don’t want people walking into a comfort zone. We want people going into a new challenge with new goals and ambitions. I have to quickly set those standards, not just with Masha but with everybody that I worked with before. It presents it’s own challenges but if the players meet them fair and square, then there won’t be any problem.”
Mashamaite admitted that Baxter’s presence persuaded him to join Matsatsantsa. But the club was only looking at signing him in the January transfer window after the Swedish league ended in November.
However the 2015 South African Footballer of the Year pleaded with United to fast-track the move. Matsatsantsa paid a “fair and reasonable price” that the club’s chief executive Stan Matthews didn’t want to disclose.
@extrastrongsa
Independent Media