Method to Bartlett's madness: Unlikely pow-wows with Dobson and Nienaber in Cape Town Spurs revival

Bafana Bafana legend and current Cape Town Spurs head coach Shaun Bartlett has always taken the road less travelled during his playing days and is continuing his unconventional thinking in his managerial career.

The 50-year-old, and second highest-scoring Bafana player behind Benni McCarthy, informed reporters during the Cape Town leg of the Nedbank Cup press conference that he has had a meeting with Stormers coach John Dobson. 

And while football and rugby are two different sports codes, there is a method behind Bartlett's madness in tapping up the current United Rugby Championship-winning coach.

"I had a meeting with John Dobson a couple of months ago, and he made a very interesting point [about Cape Town] that is why I wanted mostly players from Cape Town," Bartlett told the media before Spurs' match against fellow National First Division outfit Baroka FC in the Nedbank Cup Round of 32 at Athlone Stadium on Friday.

"You got to do it for the people. This club deserves to be in the top tier. No disrespect to the Ajax brand. This is a new club, a new brand."

Spurs went through a merger in 1999, a few months after Bartlett left to join FC Zurich in 1998. The club joined forces with Dutch side Ajax Amsterdam and ultimately merged with rivals Seven Stars to create Ajax Cape Town.

It was a deal that lasted two decades before the Dutch Eredivisie parent company sold its shares in 2020, and the Spurs brand reignited its flames in the Cape.

Now Bartlett is doing all he can to see the club back in South Africa's top flight under the Cape Town Spurs mast, even if it means taking a different route in his learning and coaching.

"Ajax Cape Town is in the past. That relationship is no longer there. We have to make sure that we get this