With Stuart Baxter having stepped down from his role as Bafana Bafana coach, the race is on to succeed him.

Jack Maluleka, who heads the SAFA Technical Committee, has praised Steve Komphela, Gavin Hunt and Benni McCarthy. Meanwhile, Pitso Mosimane has been linked with a return to the hot seat he held from 2010 to 2012.

There would be pros and cons of taking any of these four coaches on. BET Central runs the rule over each of them to determine what we can expect, should they land the national team top job.

Pros: The Golden Arrows coach has not only played for Bafana Bafana, but also has coaching experience within SAFA’s structures. He stepped in as Bafana caretaker coach in 2012 following Pitso Mosimane’s dismissal and has also presided over South Africa’s U20 and U23 sides.

Komphela has also coached clubs from various parts of the country, most notably Bloemfontein Celtic and Kaizer Chiefs. He possesses not only experience in abundance, but also a level of wisdom that is rare in professional sport.

He holds a teaching diploma, but it appears to have largely been his time in Turkey which truly moulded him into the mentor he is today.

“All I knew was the history I was taught at school, which was biased. These people from outside South Africa knew a lot about my country,” Komphela said of his early days in Turkey, as quoted by City Press.

“That’s when I decided to do some soul-searching. I wanted to find my identity as a black South African.”

Komphela went on to work as a television presenter. According to the former Maritzburg United coach, many were shocked that a black man could speak fluent Turkish.

The 52-year-old has never been afraid of a new challenge and this strengthens his case as a candidate to coach the national team. Komphela’s quiet determination could be just what Bafana need at this moment in their history.

Cons: Steve Komphela’s time at Kaizer Chiefs was not the disaster some make it out to be, but the struggles he endured there need to be addressed. Amakhosi won the league twice in three seasons under Stuart Baxter before Komphela replaced him, but he failed to steer them to a major trophy.

Particularly worrying was Komphela’s final campaign, during which the Glamour Boys scored less than a goal per game in the Absa Premiership.

Giovanni Solinas and Ernst Middendorp have both struggled to get Chiefs playing to their full potential since Komphela’s departure, which to be fair says plenty about the state of the club as a whole.

Pros: After earning three Absa Premiership titles at SuperSport United and one at Bidvest Wits, there can be no doubting Hunt’s credentials. An astute tactician, he knows how to get teams punching well above their weight.

What Hunt has shown us over the last two years is an ability to respond to setbacks. After the Clever Boys slipped to 13th on the Absa Premiership table in 2017/18, he lifted them up to third last season.

Hunt has, by his own admission, regularly been in the frame for a job within SAFA’s structures. At the age of 55, he still likely has plenty of years in the game ahead of him. However, now seems a fitting time to give him a chance to repeat his club success on the international stage.

Cons: When Hunt is in a bad mood, he isn’t afraid to show it. He has made no secret of his disagreements with referees in what have often been abrupt post-match interviews. The question is: haven’t we seen this movie before?

Shakes Mashaba and Stuart Baxter both talked themselves into trouble, the former with South Africa’s footballing authorities and the latter largely with the general public. Hunt’s no-nonsense approach can be a strength, but it could also be his undoing.

He has achieved plenty of success at club level, but he does not have the experience with SAFA that Komphela has. As we have seen with Pitso Mosimane, Gordon Igesund and Stuart Baxter, club achievements do not necessarily translate into international accolades.

Pros: Arguably the most qualified candidate for the job, Pitso Mosimane has grown in leaps and bounds since his first stint in charge of Bafana Bafana.

He has highly respected across the African continent having won the 2016 CAF Champions League and 2017 CAF Super Cup. In addition, ‘Jingles’ has four Absa Premiership titles to his name.

If Stuart Baxter can be given a second shot at coaching Bafana Bafana, then surely the most successful South African coach of this generation can too.

Cons: Bafana Bafana failed to qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations under Mosimane after a misinterpretation of the rules saw them playing for a draw when they needed a win. He and SAFA then parted ways after a poor start to 2014 World Cup qualifying.

This does not disqualify Mosimane from the job, but his past mistakes do need to be understood if he wants a return.

It appears, however, as if he is not especially keen on the idea. When asked about the Bafana job this month, Mosimane insisted he was happy at Sundowns and hinted at underlying issues in the Bafana Bafana setup. He even went as far as to name Komphela, Hunt and McCarthy as potential candidates for the job.