The South African Football Association (Safa) wants the right man at the right price to be coach Stuart Baxter’s assistant.
After being re-appointed as national boss last May, Baxter has not only struggled to find the perfect mix of players, but it seems like a lack of finances is also preventing the coach from landing a right hand man.
And with South Africa looking to qualifying for their first Afcon since 2015, Baxter is hoping that his Safa bosses sort out the situation sooner rather than later.
Bafana legend Quinton Fortune has been involved on a part-time basis, but no headway was made in negotiations for a permanent deal and highly-rated Orlando Pirates No.2 Rhulani Mokwena has also been a target.
And Baxter says: “We do have challenges there. Some people we recommended, but the process has not been as easy as it should be. We’ve had budget issues and we couldn’t throw the net out.
“But it is up to Safa to sift through my recommendations and for the decision to be made later – maybe after these qualifiers.”
Handicapped by the lack of a No.2, Baxter believes they need to book their place at next year’s Afcon as soon as possible.
And a win over Libya next Friday would go along way to help their cause. Three points would put them in pole position in Afcon 2019 qualifying Group E with four matches to play.
And coach Stuart Baxter says he has done his homework on the north Africans, who top the group after an opening game win against the Seychelles.
He says: “I’ve got some really good intelligence on Libya and we’ve broken down how they play. They press up high much like Cape Verde. We are going to prepare well for that and I think we can find a way around it.”
“We want to wrap up qualification quickly because it will give us time to rotate players. The Libya game is very important to achieving this.”
The Englishman adds that another match in the Fifa break would have helped as it would have given him more time to work with the team.