Cape Town Spurs have confirmed the appointment of Bafana Bafana great Shaun Bartlett as their new head coach.
The 48-year-old has arrived at the Ikamva to replace Dylan Deane, after he parted ways with the club with immediate effect following a poor run of results.
Bartlett went into coaching after hanging up his boots in 2009. He has since enjoyed success with Golden Arrows when he guided them to National First Division (now GladAfrica Championship) glory in 2015 before taking over the reins at AmaTuks.
The Bafana icon followed up his stint at AmaTuks with assistant coaching roles at Kaizer Chiefs, Bafana Bafana and, most recently, TS Galaxy.
He will be in the dugout when the Cape side take on his former club AmaTuks in the 2021-22 GladAfrica Championship at Tuks Stadium on Wednesday.
“I am excited about the appointment, it caught me by surprise having only left my previous employer not too long ago,” Bartlett told capetownspurs.co.za.
“But I am very happy to be back in Cape Town and the prospect of working with the players and seeing how far we can push it to get back to the elite level, where I believe the club belongs.
“There is good enough quality at the club to get the club higher up on the table, firstly and secondly, no player or club becomes bad overnight. When you hit a stumbling block it is about having the mental strength and psychological capabilities to get out of it and that is what the players need to realise.
“We are not always going to win every game, we just need to know how to bounce back and that is what we will be working on.
The new Urban Warriors boss continued: “I think the players also realise that they have been employed by the club to do a certain job and everybody will understand that, that job means giving 100% the minute you come through the gates, whether it be for training or on match day. That is the mentality and mindset that we will have for the rest of the season, starting with the next game.
“I think it is always important to have that balance of young players breaking into the first team along with the experienced players in the squad. I always expect the experienced players to be guiding the younger players,” he explained.
“Everybody will be treated the same but I always have a saying: ‘Some are more equal to others’. I can’t treat Bevan the same as a young player coming into the team. Bevan’s experience will be vital, having worked with him before. He is a true professional, he always looks after himself and he is a true leader, and for me that’s going to be important especially considering the situation we currently find ourselves in. You need that leadership on the field.”
“To be honest, whether it be the DStv Premiership or GladAfrica Championship, every game is about results and that is what coaching is about as well. You’ve got to make your players understand that, we don’t play just to keep possession, we’ve got to make sure that we score goals and win games. That is what we will be judged on and we have got to ensure that we do everything possible to get those results.
“The only difference maybe between the two leagues is that in the GladAfrica Championship the incentives are there for you to get to the top league and that is what we are going to try and do from the first game – to make sure that we get as many points as possible leading up to the break in December and take it from there.
“At this point in time it is game by game, I always look at it as a ladder: the first step is on Wednesday. It is small steps in order to get to the top, but we will take it one step at a time,” Bartlett concluded.
