Barker, the former Tuks and AmaZulu head coach, had joined up to be Sammy Troughton’s assistant in December 2016. After a number of years in Tshwane, where Barker had taken Tuks from the amateur ranks right up to the Premiership, the former Wits midfielder took on the challenge of trying to save a struggling Usuthu from relegation. The risk failed, and Barker’s boyhood club went down to the National First Division.
With five games remaining in the following campaign, and it clear that AmaZulu was not going to win the league, the club parted ways with Barker. The then-owners, the Sokhelas, would go on to buy Thanda Royal Zulu’s Premiership status, thus returning Usuthu to the top flight, while Richards Bay would be founded after Thanda’s demise.
A few months later Barker took a step back and accepted the assistant role with Troughton, his former right-hand man at Tuks. At the end of the season Stellies finished third, but despite coming so close to promotion, just missing out in the playoffs, the club opted not to renew with the Northern Irishman.
Barker’s contract was a little trickier as he had only joined the club seven months earlier, and so Ferreira chose to keep the former Tuks and AmaZulu coach, and in fact, they decided to name him the new Head Coach.
And a year later, the move to Stellenbosch took another turn when the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport decided they would purchase the franchise.
It paid off dividends and Stellenbosch were promoted to the DStv Premiership in the first year of their five-year plan to become a competitive top-flight side.
Reflecting back, Barker spoke about that five-year plan, and how their goalposts shifted as they continued to be ahead of their initial targets.
“Ja, look, I think that was the initial plan, that was a five-year (plan) and we obviously got promoted in the first year of it,” Barker told iDiski Times.
“So I think we’re ahead of schedule, I think the first three seasons are always a tough time in the PSL to just establish yourself. So I think within the five years, we’ve not only got promoted, but we’ve established ourselves as a competitive team.
“I think a new cycle is now to continue to be consistent in that competitiveness at the higher end of the league table. And if we can just continue to lay the structures at the bottom like we are doing, going forward, we can be a formidable club in the country.
“But there’s still a lot of work to be done. Still a youthful team at this current stage, the first team. We brought a lot of players at that age, as opposed to a lot of over-thirties that we had. And that’ll take a little bit of time for them to really play together as a unit, and as a team.
“And I do believe that if we can just keep all our talent, which will always be a challenge, we can then really be a competitive team in the PSL.”
