TRINIDAD and Tobago senior football team coach Bertille St Clair is displeased that national players of T&T Pro League champs CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh were absent from training sessions on Tuesday and yesterday.
“We want the Pro League to survive,” he continued. “But how could the Pro League survive if we’re not going to the World Cup so that people could see the bigger picture? And that’s what we expect the people in the Pro League to understand (that) if the team succeeds, the Pro League rises, (and) the football in the country rises,” he said. In a counter-claim, Jabloteh’s manager Azaad Khan noted that the TTFF were under the impression that there were no Pro League matches on the schedule. “But there is a general rule that once there are (club) matches, the players must be with their clubs,” he said. Stating that there must have been some sort of mis-information or mis-communication, Khan emphasised that Jabloteh are fully committed to the national cause.
“But fixtures are drawn and there are commitments to be fulfilled,” he pointed out. Jabloteh played yesterday’s Pro League encounter without the services of assistant coach Anthony Streete, who was relieved of his duties on Monday. A source close to the team revealed that Streete, a former national, Petrotrin and ECM Motown player, was removed with immediate effect following a meeting with the club’s management on Monday. After spending four years with the club, as assistant to a trio of Englishmen Terry Fenwick, Ricky Hill and Stephen Rutter, Streete served as head coach of Jabloteh during the 1990s before adopting a similar position with Queen’s Park, before returning to the San Juan club. The source stated that the back-to-back national club championships will appoint Streete’s replacement early next week.