Former Bafana Bafana captain and one of the country’s top strikers, Shaun Bartlett, has signed for Bloemfontein Celtic.
Bartlett’s contract runs until the end of the season.
Bartlett, who left Kaizer Chiefs at the end of the season after a two-year spell with Amakhosi, is set to make his debut for Phunya Sele Sele in their crunch bottom-of-the-log showdown against Bay United in Port Elizabeth on Sunday.
Celtic coach Mich D’Avray is delighted to be reunited with Bartlett, who he coached while in charge of now-defunct Cape Town Spurs 10 years ago.
Said D’Avray: ”Shaun will be a huge asset to Celtic with his experience and leadership skills. We lack leaders on the field at the moment and Shaun will fill that gap. He is an outstanding leader.”
His signing comes at a vital time for Celtic and D’Avray as Sunday’s clash against Bay United is crucial.
In a twist of fortune, Bay United signed Khabo Zondo to replace coach Vladislav Heric, who quit last week claiming interference from management
Zondo was given his break in coaching by D’Avray in 1994/95 when he was D’Avray’s assistant coaching the South African under-23 squad.
Said D’Avray: ”Khabo is a great guy. He is also an experienced coach and is also a former Celtic coach, so he knows my players better than anyone around. This is going to be a real tough battle on Sunday and we need all the help we can get, including the services — if only for 20 minutes — of Bartlett.”
Bartlett played under D’AVray when Spurs won the league and cup double in 1995. Both left the country that year. D’Avray went to Australia where he had a lot of success with Perth Glory, while Bartlett played in the United States, Switzerland and landed up at English Premiership club Charlton Athletic, where he played 123 games from 2000 to 2006.
D’Avray’s only concern over the 36-year-old Bartlett is his lack of match fitness. Bartlett has not played this season after he was released by Chiefs at the end of last season.
Said D’Avray: ”The biggest problem is there is little opportunity to get decent teams to play us in a practice matches in Bloemfontein as there are no Premier Soccer League [PSL] teams nearby. Therefore I am going to have to bring Bartlett on for 20 or 30 minutes to help fast-track his match fitness, starting with the game against Bay United on Sunday. At this stage Bartlett is in my mind and in the squad for Sunday.”
D’Avray has also told his players to forget last weekend’s controversial Telkom Knockout semifinal, where Celtic were beaten 3-0 by Orlando Pirates in Durban.
Referee Abdul Ebrahim sent off the wrong Celtic player just before halftime for an elbowing incident. D’Avray said he expected the red card shown to innocent Ugandan striker Geoffrey Sserumkuma to be rescinded.
Said D’Avray: ”There is no point in going on about that incident. What I cannot understand is why the referee sent off a player if he was not 100% sure he was the guilty person.”
D’Avray said the players had to show character and fight against Bay United and that the Knockout was history: ”There is no guarantee we would have beaten Pirates. We need to put that disappointment behind us and focus on winning league points.”
D’Avray was surprisingly complimentary about the standard of refereeing in the PSL; ”There has been a big improvement in the refereeing standards since I last coached here 10 years ago. There was a lot of blatant cheating going on in those days.
”Today there is a lot of television exposure, which has helped stamp out the cheats. I believe that the majority of refereeing mistakes are human error.” — Sapa