Kaizer Chiefs co-coach Kaze clarifies Baartman’s DDC claims

Luke Baartman and Asanele Velebayi are among the 11 players Kaizer Chiefs signed in the last Premier Soccer League transfer window.

The duo are some of the players who successfuly graduated from the Cape Town Spurs Academy before forcing a move to the Glamour Boys after the Urban Warriors' relegation to the South African's third tier.

However, while Velebayi has, at least, made the matchday squad in the recent PSL game agaisnt Siwelele, it was not the case for Baartman. Co-coach Cedric Kaze then went on to state the 19-year-old might be dropped to the DDC.

Following the backlash by majority of the club's fans, the tactician has made clear what he meant.

Kaze clarifies his comments

“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,” he opened up to the media.

“It’s not a player that was bought to go to gain experience in our DDC, but there are 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 weekend, then Monday be at training, training with 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 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 then he can play three days after with the first team, but it doesn’t mean that you are downgraded him to the DDC team.

Baartman was brought to play for Chiefs' first team

“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 first team and it’s very difficult to experiment with the kind of pressure and kind of must-results that you have to get.

“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, would I put him to play DDC? No! Why? Because he’s a player that has seen it all.