The more things change, the more they deteriorate in this twin-island madhouse of a country, whether its politics or morality, cricket or football.
Why does it always seem like we've been through all this before? An exiled former player begs for the salvation of local football. A former official rips the local media for failing to promote the national team's World Cup qualifying bid. And Trinidad and Tobago are beaten in Mexico. What else is new?
Add to that the regular bittersweet journeys down memory lane as the Express Sports magazine's "Turning Back the Clock" focuses Thursday after Thursday on the countless images of 16 years ago, when this nation was galvanised like never before or since in pursuit of a dream that seemed so close we were convinced that it was already a reality.
Even if our short memories allow us to quickly forgive and forget before jumping onto the next bandwagon, the recriminations that followed the "Road to Italy" campaign left many a diehard fan feeling used and abused.
Yet some-showing more unyielding loyalty to the game than some of those wearing the uniform or sitting in the administrative offices-still keep coming back for more, to have their hopes fuelled by delusions of grandeur and wholly unrealistic expectations.
Sammy Llewellyn, the former national striker, has an axe to grind with Jack Warner for what he describes as the game being taken away from the people.
Peter O'Connor, president of the Football Association in those heady days of 1989 and now marketing manager of the 2006 qualifying campaign, holds the media partially responsible for the success or failure to achieve what he says will be the biggest sporting story of our lives, reaching the World Cup finals.
Assuming both have valid arguments, why did the people allow the game to be taken away from them? Why don't the people berate the media for such cursory coverage of their beloved national team?
Indeed, just as a people get the political representatives (on both sides of the floor) they deserve, so is any public institution reflective of those who comprise it and are directly influenced by it.
Hardly anyone makes a big fuss about the often superficial nature of the coverage of the country's World Cup qualifying campaign. Not because they are necessarily satisfied with it, but simply because they are tired of getting their hopes up, only to be let down.
Even now, at the halfway stage of an effort in which Trinidad and Tobago, despite Wednesday night's 2-0 loss in Monterrey, are still very much in with a chance of finishing at least fourth to earn a playoff with an Asian country, most of the public are observing from a cautious distance.
There is a sense of resigned inevitability that sooner or later the bubble will burst and we will all be thankful for not getting caught up in the premature euphoria as in the countdown to November 19, 1989.
Of course, if the current squad reverses the expected trend, the indifferent and uncommitted will readily get on board, leaving them open to justifiable accusations of being a band of fair-weather friends.
We may not all be students of history, but we are conditioned by it without even acknowledging that we are repeating the mistakes of the past.
So many world-class players have reached their prime and gone past it, so many coaches have come and gone, yet the dream has never even come anywhere close to being fulfilled as on that golden sunny Sunday afternoon in November 16 years ago.
If the public and media are now tired and wary of the hype generated every four years, who can blame them?
None of this is fair on the players, who are only trying their very best.
Even in the defeat to Mexico, they showed commitment and spirit, except that the perennial bugbear of the defence caving in under relentless pressure got the better of them.
Just as Brian Lara is winning over the doubters over his status as one of the greatest batsmen of all time, so too is his liming partner Dwight Yorke literally trying to lead from the front as Trinidad and Tobago captain, four years after he and compere Russell Latapy resigned from national duty in the midst of the last failed campaign.
If only things were different. If only there was less controversy, less bacchanal, less fury and invective associated with football in this country.
If only merit and integrity, consistency and discipline were the watchwords of the local game, then there might have been the gradual progress towards a cherished goal, not the rapid accelerations and swift reversals that invariably have left us in the same place from whence we started the journey.
But that is how we want it, or else for sure it would be different. As with any other worthwhile endeavour, there are too many people involved with widely varying agendas.
Someone screams from the rooftops at perceived injustices, and then goes strangely quiet when offered a big job and a nice jacket with a badge stuck onto it.
Leo Beenhakker is an outstanding world-class coach. But he will not change the state of Trinidad and Tobago football. That has to come from the grassroots and will only manifest itself after years of careful nurturing, not chopping down and re-planting every year or so.
In the meantime, many will continue to wait and watch from an emotionally safe distance.