JOHANNESBURG - Baxter, who was named the new Chiefs coach in May, said he was ready to take on the challenge of being the man to restore Amakhosi’s waning reputation in  football.

“We need to arrest the decline in standards of the team and start achieving things,” Baxter said yesterday.

“This is a great club and not me alone, but the players and everyone, is ready to take the team to great heights.”

The former Bafana Bafana coach will inherit a side rock bottom in confidence given   that Chiefs finished last season without a single trophy.

Players were unhappy under previous coach, Vladimir Vermezovic who was in charge of the team for the past two-and-a-half seasons.

Chiefs’ previous campaign was punctuated by players   discontented with treatment   from the Serbian, resulting in them failing to deliver any tangible returns.

Asked  how hungry the team was to win the league this season, Baxter said they were ambitious enough to win  the PSL title.

“We are passionate  and want to win the league very badly,” he said.

Prior to joining Chiefs, Baxter was a technical director at Swedish club AIK Stockholm but has not been actively involved in club coaching for the past two years.

Despite this, the Briton said he believed he could guide the club to a brighter future.

“We have quality players and they can see us going somewhere. We have a good chance  given the kind of players we have,” he said.

The club also, yesterday, officially unveiled Siyabonga Nkosi, Siboniso Gaxa, Kgotso Moleko, Sakhile Hlongwa and Morgan Gould but other prospective signings,  Kingston Nkhatha and Brilliant Khuzwayo, were not part of the proceedings.

And the club   was unable to   confirm  any  pending deal with Bloemfontein Celtic defender Eric Mathoho.

But in what was a bizarre moment, the   defender’s jersey was displayed as if he had already  signed for Chiefs.
 
Chiefs are wrestling Mamelodi Sundowns for the player’s signature.

Sundowns are reported to have offered Celtic R8-million plus two players for Mathoho while Chiefs have upped from R5-million to R6-million their bid for the towering defender.