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28
Thu, Mar

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So the inevitable has finally happened. After much vacillation, the T&T Football Federation and Jack Warner have belatedly relieved the national football team and the country of Bertille St Clair.


It was clear that with each successive game St Clair’s position was becoming more and more untenable and the various excuses proffered by manager Richard Braithwaite, Warner and St Clair himself after inexcusable performances by the team were generating little sympathies from an irate public.

To make matters worse, after a recent interview on radio with Andre Baptiste, St Clair’s own words condemned him as he spoke openly, inter alia, of how he perceived his role as coach of the national team.

I listened to the interview with a flush on my face and remorse in my heart as St Clair revealed what was long suspected: that as national coach he was constrained, boorish and dull.

It was clear that St Clair was aware that he should have a footballing philosophy much as Oscar Wilde was aware that he should have a wife. For in answer to a question from Baptiste as to what kind of football style he follows, his response was: “Style? I do not know that answer.”

It is a moot point that all serious coaches follow a particular style of play that becomes their signature or hallmark. Whether it is a 4-4-2, 5-3-2, or the Brazilian diamond etc but some tried and tested formula for which they become known.

The interviewer, in a vain attempt to give St Clair another opportunity to repair the damage done by his earlier answer, rephrased the question. He asked: “Are you a defence-oriented coach or an attack-oriented coach?”

St Clair’s hollow response to this question may well have been the proverbial straw which broke the camel’s back. He replied: “I play the game the way it comes. The best way to defend is to attack. But I like to see good football.”

Warner and the TTFF perhaps watched these signs like vultures their prey, and realised once and for all that their confidence in St Clair was misplaced and that they could no longer conceal his shortcomings from the glare of an increasingly exasperated public.

It is now common knowledge that the Dutchman Leo Beenhakker has been appointed national coach.

Input by nationals on the coaching staff, it is hoped, will ease Beenhakker’s entry into the local arena in the shortest possible time.

For with only four weeks to go before our next encounter against Panama, the challenge facing Beenhakker, a coach of unquestionable quality, being asked to take charge of the team in the middle of the World Cup campaign, will be to familiarise himself with 20 or 30 players with whom he has never worked and select a winning combination, or at least a team that can withstand the assaults of the likes of Mexico and the USA.

Such a task requires much interaction and socialisation between coach, player and local environment both on and off the field of play.

This is where the guidance of locals will prove invaluable. I had hoped this would be David Nahkid’s role.

Warner is to be lauded for his courage to bell the cat, albeit at the eleventh hour, and close this unfortunate chapter in the country’s footballing history, by replacing St Clair.

But, as in all things, timing is of the essence, and with only seven games left and a maximum of 21 points to get, with the best will in the world, it will require a Herculean effort for Beenhakker to transform the team from their present state to a cohesive unit.

It will also be imperative to build a team based on the locally-based players so that when the foreign-based players arrive two or three days before a game due to their overseas commitments or if they are not released by their clubs, we have a well honed cadre of local talent upon which we can draw.

The role of a local assistant coach will therefore be of great importance in identifying this talent.

I would like to see the likes of Otis Seaton, Ian Gray, Kerwyn Jemmott, among others, all players of considerable ability, but who fell out of favour under St Clair’s stewardship, return centrestage and be part of the new dispensation.

In closing, I wish the Warriors all success in this new thrust towards Germany 2006.