Stellenbosch FC Chief Executive Officer Rob Benadie explained the mandate of coach Steve Barker after he recently signed his the new contract.
Barker recently put pen to paper on a new deal until 2026 with the Cape Winelands side after he became the club’s first head coach when they acquired the status of Vasco da Gama in the second tier and led the club to win the league before solidifying their place in the DStv Premiership.
With the youngest squad in the league, Barker led Stellies to fourth place last season, narrowly missing out on CAF inter-club qualification. The club’s fine performances under Barker’s leadership led the club’s bosses to extend his deal, with Benadie saying the coach has to finish in the top eight.
“All the technical staff and myself as the CEO, when we got promoted, what did we say to you guys, what was our ambition in the PSL? To stay, 33 points, get there as quickly as possible. Because we knew according to history we not gonna get relegated with 33 points,” Benadie told reporters.
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“We want compete against all teams not just be in the league. Yes there are expectations for Steve to do better with this squad than two to three years ago and it’s in his contract. So there’s more pressure maybe on the coach, on me, more pressure on the players to perform. At the end of the day they must go out and perform.
“Our expectation is not to be out of the top eight, we didn’t say that last year to you. We said we would like to get into the top eight. Now we’ve achieved it fantastically but we now want to prove that we can stay there and that we can become a consistent top-eight or top-six team that are our next steps.
“Retain the status, and try to get into the top-eight, now we’ve got to challenge ourselves to be consistently there. So that’s Steve’s mandate.”
