Delron Buckley unhappy with commitment of South African players ahead of Senegal clash

by Phumzile Ngcatshe

Friday Nov 10, 2017. 13:30

With South African midfielder Thulani Serero not honouring his national team call-up, former Bafana Bafana winger Delron Buckley has questioned the players' commitment.

Buckley says the national team has good players, but remains puzzled as to why they fail to produce the goods.

Buckley was reacting after Serero told Bafana team manager Barney Kujane that he will not be coming to the national team camp for the Senegal match.

The 1996 African champions are chasing six points out of the two matches against Aliou Cisse's men to book a spot at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

In his response, coach Stuart Baxter said he could not guarantee players a place in the starting elevne because this is a national team.

Meanwhile, the former VFL Bochum, Borussia Dortmund and Maritzburg United winger added that Bafana have skilled players such as Kermit Erasmus among others.

“In the national team we have good quality players: we have the skills in these players, so why isn’t it functioning?,” he tells KickOff.com.

“You have players like (Keagan) Dolly, Erasmus, (Percy) Tau… we have good-quality players with so much skill, and with these players we should be qualifying and beating countries.

“But I’m not sure what’s happening – maybe players are too much in their comfort zones.

“What I can see from the outside is that the players overseas, earning the big money, are comfortable.

“I’m sure [Stuart] Baxter‘s trying to make the team want to win together, but all the players have to pull in the same direction.

"Football is such a lovely sport, and that’s what I love about it – anything can happen, anything! Tables can turn overnight. But it’s doable.”