Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane has reacted angrily to claims made by his former boss Stuart Baxter that he and Dillon Sheppard backstabbed him.
Chiefs dismissed Baxter towards the end of last season after a string of poor results. Zwane and Sheppard were his assistants at the time.
They were confirmed as head and assistant coach ahead of the current season.
In a radio interview with SABC Sport, Baxter came out with guns blazing, accusing the two of trying to backstab him by taking a different direction from him in terms of team selection, orchestrated by sporting director Kaizer Motaung Jnr, while he was off-duty due to Covid-19.
Baxter also claimed that the powers that be at the club told him his safety was no longer guaranteed, which prompted him to resign.
“I must say I am a little disappointed (with Baxter’s remarks), but to be quite honest, I don’t care,” Zwane told journalists during the club’s media day on Thursday.
“I don’t really care simply because we are here in the business of serving football, and when I listen to him carefully to what was said on the radio, the problem started when he was sick. So, if I am to break it down, how it all started, he is actually exposing himself.
“If he can elaborate when he says we backstabbed him, how? Do you understand what I am saying? Because we thought we were working with someone that we can learn from. Someone that will be our mentor,” he said.
“I am a little bit disappointed because people must just own up. If things didn’t work out, they didn’t work out. You don’t have to shift the blame and point fingers. He is the one that said he didn’t want to play the young players, and I don’t know why he was saying that.
“If he wants us to challenge him head-on, then we will do it because they [foreigners] come here and disrespect us and expect us to keep quiet. His son [Lee Baxter)] backstabbed him, not us, because he was a problem as well.”
