Igesund out over results

Baxter to take reins as SuperSport coach

GORDON Igesund’s fate at SuperSport United was sealed after the club received an embarrassing 4-1 thumping from Polokwane City and drew 2-2 with Maritzburg United this month.

The former Bafana Bafana coach knew he was living on borrowed time after failing to win those two games and it did not come as a surprise when the club finally showed him the door yesterday and replaced him with Stuart Baxter.

SuperSport chief executive Stanley Matthews conceded yesterday that it was these two results that hastened Igesund’s departure and ended his 16-month stay at the Pretoria side.

“Gordon’s contract was running until the end of the season and we had an option to extend,” Matthews said yesterday.

“I think the Maritzburg United and Polokwane City results were two results we couldn’t stomach.

“To be dropping points against the bottom teams and to be taking four [goals] from Polokwane, with due respect, [are] not the kind of results we expected.

“It prompted us to sit down with Gordon and we told him that ‘the way things are now we are not committing to keeping you next season’,” Matthews said.

“Gordon felt that if that was the case he didn’t want to be hanging around and that we should part ways earlier, so he agreed to a termination.

“We were looking more at appointing a new coach at the end of the season and we were not looking to make a change halfway through the season.

“The Polokwane and Maritzburg results, unfortunately, put a big finger on the fast-forward button.

“At least Gordon was professional enough to acknowledge that the results had not been what we expected.”

Supersport have battled for form since the beginning of the season and they thought they had turned the corner when they suddenly went six league games unbeaten between October and December.

However, that purple patch was short-lived as they came unstuck against Maritzburg and City this month.

Matthews further said a lot more was expected from the 2014 Telkom Knockout champions and Igesund, given that they had bolstered the squad with several big-name players.

“We have a genuine gratitude for what Gordon did for the club, but unfortunately he hasn’t sustained that sort of results,” Matthews said.

“Worse than that, from our point of view, [after] adding 10 players to the team that won the Telkom Knockout, we expected the team to move forward.

“Those were not ordinary players. You talk about Kingston Nkhatha, Jeremy Brockie, Dean Furman, Bongani Khumalo, Luvo Mpeta – high-quality players. These are players we felt would take the team to another level.”

New coach Baxter, who has a 2½-year contract, has on many occasions been linked with the club and Matthews admitted he had always been in contact with the Englishman.

But Matthews argued that there was nothing sinister. “We only concluded the deal on Tuesday night . . . ,” he said.

“I’ve kept contact with Stuart over the years and obviously, when he was at Kaizer Chiefs, I didn’t want to hang around other teams’ coaches.

“We weren’t the only option for Stuart so I was pleased that he chose us.

“Our relationship does stretch back more than 12 years.”