Stuart Baxter says a group of fans won’t decide his fate at Kaizer Chiefs. Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix
Johannesburg - Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter says he’s willing to resign if the club chairman Kaizer Motaung, the players and the majority of the supporters endorse the campaign “Baxter must go” following their 1-0 defeat to SuperSport United on Saturday night.
“I don’t have any message to the fans because if they want me to go, I’ll go,” Baxter said in the post-match press conference. “If the chairman says to me, ‘Stuart I don’t think you’re doing a good job’, then I’ll walk. I’ve got no problem doing that.
“I will walk myself if I don’t think I’m affecting the team in a positive way. I’ll walk, not a problem.
“I’m the only coach that has given this club any success in the last 20 years, but I’ve got to go because we dominate the game and lose 1-0? I’ve got to listen to that? It’s Okay.
“They are the fans; they have the right to say exactly what they want. If that reflects what the chairman thinks, what the players think and the majority of our fans think, then maybe I should walk ...
ALSO READ: Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter not bothered by criticism on social media
“But that’s nothing a group of fans will decide, that’s something the football club or I will decide. And if I get that feeling, then of course I’ll walk. But at the moment I’m looking at that as being a game that we should have won but we didn’t and that happens in football.”
Chiefs’ clash with SuperSport was the first encounter where Amakhosi could welcome their supporters back to a match venue in more than two years after they were barred in attempts of curbing the spread of Covid-19.
ALSO READ: Clubs need balanced squads to compete, says Kaizer Chiefs' coach Stuart Baxter
Chiefs’ loss to SuperSport, through Thamsanqa Gabuza’s lone strike, must have stung the supporters, given that the Tshwane-based side are currently coach-less following the sacking of Kaitano Tembo last week due to poor results.
Furthermore, Baxter’s second stint at the club was not approved of by some of the Chiefs supporters last year. They felt that Arthur Zwane, his assistant, should have taken over the reins instead, especially after his successful stint as the interim coach after the sacking of Gavin Hunt.
Under Baxter, Chiefs are on course to end the season trophyless, which means that their barren run will extend to seven seasons.
@MihlaliBaleka