Kaizer Chiefs starlet compared to Themba Zwane! Coach Cedric Kaze makes it clear that Luke Baartman is not like Mamelodi Sundowns captain and explains why Amajita attacker should play in DDC

Kaizer Chiefs co-coach Cedric Kaze has clarified why new signing Luke Baartman has been playing with the team's DStv Diski Challenge side amid rumours the star has been relegated. 

The former Young Africans assistant coach has clarified that the ex-Cape Town Spurs youngster was signed to specifically play for the senior side. However, his appearance with the DDC side is meant to fast-track his level of fitness. 

“People think we are trimming back a player like Baartman. I want just to clarify that it’s a player that was bought to be part of Kaizer Chiefs’ first team squad,” the Burundian told the media.

“It’s not a player that was bought to gain experience in our DDC, but there is a different process in what we are doing. Baartman, if I count how many days he has been absent from the team, it’s like almost two months with the pre-season, with the World Cup and when we said we will consider playing him DDC on the weekend, then Monday be at training, training with the first team and going forward to play as well in the first team. 

“I don’t know, but it’s how football works. If a player is a little bit late on the physical condition or even on the tactical and technical conditions in every team in the world, the weekend he plays with the reserve, then he comes back to the first team, and then he can play three days after with the first team, but it doesn’t mean that you are downgrading him to the DDC team."

Kaze has also made a comparison between Baartman and Mamelodi Sundowns' experienced and multiple Premier Soccer League title-winning captain, Themba Zwane.

"It’s just a matter of game time, but you do that when you don’t have games where he could feature because this is the first team, and it’s very difficult to experiment with the kind of pressure and kind of must-win results that you have to get," the former Chiefs assistant coach explained. 

“I repeat again, he's a player that was bought and that was brought to play for the first team, and he will be with the first team.

“If in my team I had a player like Themba Zwane, if there was no age-related issue, would I put him to play DDC? No! Why? Because he’s a player who has seen it all."

The youngster, just like his former Cape Town Spurs teammate, Asanele Velebayi, is yet to make his Amakhosi debut.   

Both were signed quite late, as their transfer was contested by Spurs, who argued that the two were still contracted with them. Their case was, however, dismissed.