Stuart Baxter (Helsingborgs and South Africa)

Currently coach of Helsingborgs and former manager of South Africa. Is he any good? What flaws does he have? Has anybody come across him before? Henrik Larsson plays under him as captain. Do Helsingborgs have the talent that he is not getting the most out of or does he have limited material to work with? I'm interetsted in seeing them again. Is Larsson likely to stay with them next season?

So nobody knows anything about his time with Helsingborgs or South Africa then?

He beat Heerenveens ass today.

EMP wrote:So nobody knows anything about his time with Helsingborgs or South Africa then?

Many South Africans, like myself, would like to forget about that chapter in their life.

In short, the man was a disaster as the coach of our national team, well not that we were better than Nigeria or Cameroon anyway. But the point is that we played the worst football we have ever seen, and he capped it by not qualifying for the world cup. We may have lost against Ghana on the qualification and they deserved to go through, but the main problem we had with him was that before he came we had never lost to Ghana before, in any football level.

In conclusion, most South African will blame him for the decline of our national team.

rza wrote:

EMP wrote:So nobody knows anything about his time with Helsingborgs or South Africa then?

Many South Africans, like myself, would like to forget about that chapter in their life.

In short, the man was a disaster as the coach of our national team, well not that we were better than Nigeria or Cameroon anyway. But the point is that we played the worst football we have ever seen, and he capped it by not qualifying for the world cup. We may have lost against Ghana on the qualification and they deserved to go through, but the main problem we had with him was that before he came we had never lost to Ghana before, in any football level.

In conclusion, most South African will blame him for the decline of our national team.

Were the players up to standard at that time? Had you gone for untested youth who weren't good enough, or was it solely down to bad coaching? Only reason I ask is he seems to be doing reasonably well at Helsingborgs, so just wondering why it was so disastrous a spell. By the way I saw Ghana thrash Nigeria 4-1 this February - first time they had won in 14 years. Ghana is a good team and they were putting it together at that time. Saw them at the world cup too and they were the most successful African team there. Sorry to remind you of a period you want to forget, just interested in getting a take on him and Larsson regarding Helsingborgs.

EMP wrote:
Were the players up to standard at that time? Had you gone for untested youth who weren't good enough, or was it solely down to bad coaching? Only reason I ask is he seems to be doing reasonably well at Helsingborgs, so just wondering why it was so disastrous a spell. By the way I saw Ghana thrash Nigeria 4-1 this February - first time they had won in 14 years. Ghana is a good team and they were putting it together at that time. Saw them at the world cup too and they were the most successful African team there. Sorry to remind you of a period you want to forget, just interested in getting a take on him and Larsson regarding Helsingborgs.

At the time we had reasonably good and experienced players and his main work was to mix them with the youngsters. He didn't bring up any youngsters even though it was proven time and time again that his main players were not having the legs anymore.

The main problem people had with him is the type of football he played. Let's just say we were playing like typical England, and that was totally unacceptable for the then African powerhouse, so fans stayed at home while the media crusified him.

There was a little issue of him having a deal with an agent to play his players, and he admitted to the accusation. That was a last straw even though we had forgiven him for losing to Ghana and eventually World Cup place. We fired him two months before AFCON 2006 for that.

Ghana gained so much strength by beating us both home and away, and we blame Baxter for unleashing them to the rest of africa.

rza wrote:

EMP wrote:
Were the players up to standard at that time? Had you gone for untested youth who weren't good enough, or was it solely down to bad coaching? Only reason I ask is he seems to be doing reasonably well at Helsingborgs, so just wondering why it was so disastrous a spell. By the way I saw Ghana thrash Nigeria 4-1 this February - first time they had won in 14 years. Ghana is a good team and they were putting it together at that time. Saw them at the world cup too and they were the most successful African team there. Sorry to remind you of a period you want to forget, just interested in getting a take on him and Larsson regarding Helsingborgs.

At the time we had reasonably good and experienced players and his main work was to mix them with the youngsters. He didn't bring up any youngsters even though it was proven time and time again that his main players were not having the legs anymore.

The main problem people had with him is the type of football he played. Let's just say we were playing like typical England, and that was totally unacceptable for the then African powerhouse, so fans stayed at home while the media crusified him.

There was a little issue of him having a deal with an agent to play his players, and he admitted to the accusation. That was a last straw even though we had forgiven him for losing to Ghana and eventually World Cup place. We fired him two months before AFCON 2006 for that.

Ghana gained so much strength by beating us both home and away, and we blame Baxter for unleashing them to the rest of africa.

Interesting. How come he wasn't banned for having a dodgy deal with an agent. Not sure what happened in South Africa, but Helsingborgs play pretty attacking football - only saw them once - and they were incredibly unlucky in the first half and then ripped apart in the second by Djurgardens.

No offence, but I have to say, having seen Ghana three times in the last 15 months, I'm glad Baxter unleashed them on Africa and the world.