Eric Tinkler leaves CT City for SuperSport United

The 46-year-old quit his post at Cape Town City on Thursday morning. After much negotiation, especially in light of the fact that the Cape cub’s boss, John Comitis, was determined to hang onto the coach, Tinkler has decided to throw in his lot with the Pretoria team.

“The club is saddened to announce that coach Eric Tinkler has broken his three-year contract, just weeks before the new pre-season. He exits the club by his choice, thorough a buy-out clause,” City announced in a statement on Thursday morning.

Tinkler did magnificent work at City last season, inspiring the new club to victory in the Telkom Knockout Cup and a third-place finish in the PSL.

SuperSport have lost their coach, Stuart Baxter, to Bafana Bafana and they believe Tinkler is the right man to step into the vacancy. Baxter has one more game to negotiate as SuperSport coach – the upcoming Nedbank Cup final – after which Tinkler will be the man in charge.

The Pretoria club is currently involved in the CAF Confederations Cup group stages, which means the new coach will be plunged into action rather quickly.

Comitis, as expected, was extremely down when giving a response. While it had been on the cards, he had fought tooth and nail to try and keep Tinkler, a coach he rates very highly.

“I am obviously very disappointed,” said Comitis. “Every person has their reasons for the decisions they make and we have to respect that.

“But this club is bigger than any individual… We are already hard at work to make the next step, to find the right fit that will last longer than a year.

“But, for us, as a club, nothing changes. We will continue to be as aggressive in our outlook and as enthusiastic in our approach to the game.”