EXCLUSIVE: former Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter on his first EVER sacking... and his future

THREESOME: the Eto'o goal that sunk Baxter

STUART BAXTER is raging. But in a good way. Sacked by Turkish strugglers Genclerbirligi after just two games, the man who took Kaizer Chiefs to two PSL titles in three years is looking forward to a swift return to football.

I'll flesh this story out later, but the talking points come in a rush: "I've never been fired before in my life. And the missus has been on the phone asking when we're going back to South Africa."

Baxter said when he left Chiefs - after being denied a part in player negotiations after winning the PSL for the second time - that he would love to return to South Africa. And with Shakes Mashaba not enjoying the greatest of success with Bafana Bafana, there are obvious conclusions to be drawn.

But the Chippa United-style decision to axe Baxter and his management team after just two games deserves closer examination.

"It was a joke Neal," he tells me by phone from Ankara, "We won ALL our pre-season friendlies and tanked Dutch club FC Twente 5-0. We were looking good, everything was going well.

"Then we start the league and we're 2-1 up... but we concede a goal and the heads go down. We lost 3-2 (to Rizasport). The second game, we're playing Samuel Eto'o's team (Antalyaspor) and we're doing fine... until the last minute.

"We've got an inexperienced ref, he misses a two-footed tackle and Eto'o sticks away the goal to make it 3-1. The journalists made a huge fuss about it.

"We walk in the dressing room afterwards and the 82-year-old chairman, who's had an average of nearly two coaches a season for the 37 years he's been in charge at Genclerbirligi, goes bonkers.

"He tells the entire technical team to pack their stuff and go. We've been here eight weeks. We're just getting started, we look good. But he wants us all gone.

"I didn't bother arguing. He couldn't even remember by name. The players tried to stand up for us, but the chairman told them not to cross the line. It's the fitness coach I brought from Kaizer Chiefs I feel sorry for. And my lad (oldest son Lee), who gave up a five-year contract in Sweden (with AIK Solna) to come here. His wife gave up her job too.

"I'll be fine. I've got hold of my lawyers and we'll have a meeting with the chairman. Will I go back if he says it was all an over-reaction? How can I after this? It makes South Africa look like a nursery school in comparison."

Genclerbirligi haven't finished above ninth for five years in the Turkish league. They last won it in 1949. Baxter only signed one player, Olaf Skulason from Iceland "because we didn't have much in the midfield, and he cost peanuts."

The chairman Ilhan Cavcav has indeed been in charge since 1977 and was born in 1935. In 2014 he threatened to fine any Genclegrbirligi player simply for having a beard. His undemocratic running of the club has led to court cases and accusations of corruption.

But Baxter insists he harbours no ill-feelings: "I have a one-year contract. I'll be able to go back to South Africa and buy a bigger house, that's what I told the missus!

"These things happen in football. My lawyers will sort this out. I'm more concerned about the rest of my technical team than about myself. I'll be back."

Hawks swoop on Bobby Motaung: the son of Kaizer must fight for his rights

Under pressure: Bobby Motaung

BOBBY MOTAUNG was arrested by the Hawks today. Kaizer Chiefs haven’t had much to say about it, the police refuse to confirm it… but the word is he’s going to be charged with corruption, fraud and possibly more.

For those who live in peculiar Pofadder and no nothing about the world out there, Bobby is a major player in South African football. He is the son of Kaizer Motaung, who founded South Africa’s most popular club in 1972 after a glittering career in the NPSL.

While Kaizer happily played with and against the greats of the world game – Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and George Best – and earned a reputation as a great South African long before Apartheid was assigned to the dustbin, his son Bobby was gifted the job of a lifetime by his father.

Last season, when he was under-fire for the way he does the general manager’s job at Naturena, Bobby famously told us: “I didn’t need a CV for this career. Kaizer Chiefs is a family business. Nothing you can say will worry me. I wasn’t appointed by the ANC.”

I said at the time that attitude stinks – and his father backed me up, apologising for his son’s behaviour. I suggested Bobby’s youngest brother Kaizer Junior would be a better figurehead, or his sister Jessica, currently the club’s marketing manager.

But Bobby carried on serenely, signing players, doing deals, insisting Tower Mathoho should go from Bloemfontein Celtic to the Amakhosi, even though they were offering half of what Mamelodi Sundowns were prepared to pay.

There was that difficult time pre-season, when the Motaungs were in mourning for a family member and Bobby left Jessica to present his new signings. In a hurried affair timed to coincide with the arrival of new coach Stuart Baxter, they presented seven new players including Kingston Nkatha, who was still under contract at Leopards and, famously, the No3 shirt which they hoped Tower would one day wear. It was a farce.

And in their opening competitive game of the season, both Bobby and Baxter – who lied on his CV and was clearly the cheap, malleable choice – were holding their heads in their hands as Chiefs went 4-0 down against Sundowns in just 37 minutes on the way to a drubbing.

Of course, they went on to record a rousing 6-0 win over AmaZulu in their opening PSL clash last Saturday but it’s possible to see that result as a simple papering over of the cracks at the AmaKhosi.

The Hawks are refusing tonight to confirm the identities of the “two prominent people” arrested on theft and forgery charges “related to the construction of the R1 billion Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit in Mpumalanga.

Ironically, I’m about half-an-hour from the giraffe-adorned stadium at Mjejane River Lodge enjoying the wild life. I didn’t expect the big game to be hunted down quite so close to here. Understandably, Hawks Spokesperson McIntosh Polela “can neither confirm nor deny” that Bobby Motaung was picked up this morning.

But I can confirm Bobby is due to appear in court, one of THREE men who, according to Polela, are due to appear in court tomorrow.

Polela told the SABC: "It's regarding the alleged fraud forging of a South African Revenue Services (SARS) document to apply for a tender contract to work in relation to the Mbombela stadium. What happened is that the Hawks as well as SARS have arrested a person in Naturena as well as Cape Town and we are currently looking for a third person."

The fabulous Mbombela Stadium, built in the footballing wilderness just south of the Kruger Park on the road to Mocambinque, might have been better of had it been designed with white elephants rather than giraffes as a support structure.

And few need reminding that the Mbombela Local Municipality's speaker, Jimmy Mohlala, was gunned down at his home in Kanyamazane in 2009, after threatening to blow the whistle on the alleged corruption related to the tender and construction of the stadium.

I know nothing of such goings-on. Only that Bobby was warned he wasn’t above the rules of ordinary men. He may be the son of Kaizer, but from where I stand, he was never fit to lace the great man’s boots.