Terry Fenwick has been choosing his words carefully since Trinidad and Tobago became the smallest nation ever to qualify for the World Cup finals.
The former England defender, who famously missed a tackle on Diego Maradona that led to the Argentinian's "goal of the century" at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, now manages one of the leading club sides in the tiny, twin-island state.
It makes him uniquely qualified to assess the prospects of the national team, the Soca Warriors, but it also gives him a tricky problem. The last thing he wants to do is to offend the country where he now lives.
"In Germany I can't see them being a threat to anyone, although I can't really say that here," he confided. "It's been rolling
off my tongue to the local media here that it will be England and Trinidad who will qualify for the later rounds, but I can't really see it happening if I'm honest. I mean, they're talking about bringing the World Cup home every day on the radio. It's unbelievable."
Fenwick, 46, will have to be mindful of local sensitivities when he travels to Germany to commentate for Trinidad television on the Soca Warriors' clash with England in Nuremberg on June 15. But, privately, he fears the worst. "Personally, I think it's a case of not embarrassing themselves in Germany," he said.
"I wouldn't want them to be battered, but I think England are capable of battering them. Everybody is also under-estimating Sweden. The one game where they feel they might be able to nick something is against Paraguay, but that is their last group game. Basically, the team qualified through the back door. They were the oldest squad in the CONCACAF region and they'll be one of the oldest squads at the World Cup.
"When you're relying on players like Russell Latapy, who's 38, and Dwight Yorke, who's 34, there are no great legs around the team and there's no energy. Leo Beenhakker has done a great job as coach in a short period of time but he has not brought a great deal of youth or athleticism into the side."
Fenwick, who is in his second spell as manager of San Juan Jabloteh in Trinidad and Tobago's Pro-League, has the unenviable distinction of holding the worst disciplinary record by an England player at the World Cup finals - three bookings in separate matches in 1986, the second of which earned a one-match suspension.
An incident last November shows he has not exactly mellowed, either. When his side conceded a goal against W Connection, scorer Gefferson Da Silva made the mistake of celebrating too close to the Jabloteh bench. He was felled by a Fenwick elbow, sparking a full-scale punch-up between both sets of players. Fenwick was initially banned from the touchline for 12 matches but the punishment was reduced to four games on appeal.
Fenwick, who played for Queens Park Rangers, Crystal Palace and Tottenham before switching to management at Portsmouth and then Northampton, is honest in his assessment of the standard of the domestic league. ''It's very poor," he said. "I think there are exceptions, but they don't have the structure here. Most of the better players find themselves looking for football scholarships in the States and the few who are really good end up in the UK, mainly in the lower leagues. But in my eyes they are not a threat to England at all."
Of Trinidad's 23-man squad, 15 ply their trade in Britain, though the team's outstanding player, Aurtis Whitley, is coached by Fenwick at Jabloteh.
Fenwick says Whitley, a skilful midfielder, is to the Soca Warriors what Brian Lara is to Trinidadian cricket, but he is concerned about his temperament.
"He's a top player but he's 27 with the mental attitude of a 17-year-old and I think the big occasion could be too much for him. In fact, I would say that about all of the local players. Aurtis went to Portsmouth two months ago and he was meant to be there for two weeks, but after three days he was on the phone to me wanting to come home."
Fenwick worries that, after so much pre-World Cup hype, the country could be facing a big let-down. "You turn the radio on and hear people saying that Trinidad and Tobago are going to win the World Cup," he said. "Whereas in England we would celebrate on the night of qualification and we might have a hangover the next morning, they haven't stopped partying since they qualified back in November.
"Even the carnival here, which is huge, is all of a sudden being linked with football and the carnival costumes have got footballs all over them. It's all gone really overboard."
