Stuart Baxter feels the timing of his appointment as head coach of Bafana Bafana came way too late to be able to help the team qualify for the 2018 Fifa World Cup.
"Looking back, it has been a difficult campaign. When I came in it was last minute and the campaign was underway,” Baxter told the media.
Baxter took over from Shakes Mashaba in May on a lucrative five-year contract, but there are already calls for him to vacate the position given Bafana's failure to qualify for the finals in Russia.
"The coaches that were here before did things in different ways and it takes time before you get your ideas across to the players,” Baxter said.
Their last game of the year saw Bafana go down 2-1 to Senegal in Dakar on Tuesday to finish bottom of Group D log.
Furthermore, Baxter guided Bafana to their 100th defeat and became the second worst coach in the team’s 25-year history since readmission in 1992 with 13 losses one short of Joel Santana on 14.
Bafana’s next encounter see them take on Libya, who top Group E of the 2019 Afcon qualifiers. The match is scheduled for March 24 in Durban.
Meanwhile, Baxter and his technical team have been summoned to a meeting with Safa’s hierarchy next week to explain how they failed to secure the country's ticket to the global showpiece next June.
