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National senior men’s football assistant coach Hutson Charles just behind head coach Angus Eve, second from right, during a training session in June. Charles was dropped by Eve from the national staff to be replaced by a data analyst.  Anthony Harris
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Assistant coach Hutson Charles was asked to make way on the staff of the senior national men's football team for a data analyst.

The cut was made upon a request by national coach Angus Eve last week who, in addition to his staff members, needed someone to do analysis on the team, Guardian Media was told.

However, Eve was informed by the T&T Football Association's (TTFA) Normalisation Committee (NC) that they could not pay for a data analyst on the team with the existing numbers on the staff, which meant a decision had to be made to cut one of his assistant coaches.

With Charles, the team consisted only of two assistant coaches, the other being Reynold Carrington. Adarryl John is a trainer on the staff while Clayton Ince, a former national goalkeeper, expectedly is the goalkeeping coach.

On Sunday, Eve could not be contacted as calls to his phone went unanswered, however, Charles, a former national midfielder who played for the now famous 'Strike Squad' confirmed the cut on the staff.  

"I'm no longer with the team. They wanted to bring in a technical person to do analysis and from what I understood they did not have enough funds to pay for that person, so he had to release one of the staff and that's just how it goes.

"I think he has a certain way he wants his technical staff to be made up and that includes the need for an analyst. If you talk to the coach, he will give a clearer idea of what he wants."

Charles was an assistant to coach Stephen Hart along with Derek King and has worked with Eve and the national team for the CONCACAF Gold Cup and its qualifying matches.

He was a joint head-coach coach with Jamaal Shabazz, who took the national senior men's team to second place behind Cuba at the 2012 Caribbean Championship held in Antigua and Barbuda.

Charles also worked with the national youth teams as an assistant coach to Anton Corneal and then Zoran Vranes when T&T qualified for the FIFA World Youth Cup in 2007 and 2009 at Under-17 and U-20 divisions, respectively.

As a player, Charles, a former soldier with the Defence Force, won three Caribbean Cup titles, including the first in 1989 and the third at home in 1994.

On Sunday though, Charles told Guardian Media that all is not lost as yet, as he was promised to be brought back on the team once the issue of finance is sorted out by the normalisation committee.

Coincidentally, the normalisation committee has been at the centre of attention after it omitted details of the Home of Football in Couva from the audited statement, an issue that arose at the last annual general meeting (AGM) of the TTFA/NC held virtually on September 26.

The NC also deferred discussion relating to the TTFA's financial matter for October 10 at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM).