Forget about the pan and tassa drum thing. Let's focus on the football, for it's only by being disciplined, consistent and structured that the game here is going to develop beyond the vaille-qui-vaille way we seem to do things every time a World Cup qualifying campaign comes around.
I'm sure almost everyone has forgotten as well the almost laughable non-story that was the new captain's armband worn by Dennis Lawrence during last week's loss to the United States at the Hasely Crawford stadium, officially ending our chances of making it to South Africa 2010.
People have to do what they have to do to drum up interest in their event. But jeezanages man, how pathetic did that much ado about nothing appear in the context of the substantive issues surrounding the senior men's national team?
Okay, so you not able with a post-mortem that highlights again the problems we all know about already. No problem. Let's look forward then to the challenges that lie ahead. But in doing so, we have to admit that there are some things that will have to be left behind if we are not to be bogged down again by all sorts of issues when the journey to Brazil 2014 kicks off in three years' time.
First and foremost, Jack Warner has to back off and give the thing a chance to develop without his occasionally erratic but all-pervasive influence. In fact, if, as some maintain, our football will collapse completely without such a generous benefactor as the FIFA vice-president, then it deserves to fall apart.
Like West Indies cricket, Trinidad and Tobago football cannot survive, revive and thrive without effective, functioning processes and systems based primarily on merit.
Look, I have no doubt that Jack means well and can't resist using his considerable influence to help the game in the land of his birth even though, as the boss of CONCACAF and the Caribbean Football Union, it is really inappropriate to be devoting so much personal attention to one member nation. That is all part of the discipline, to be detached professionally even if the emotional attachment is strong.
And since almost everyone in any position of authority in the local game seems to be entirely dependent on Warner's next initiative and dictate, it should be the man himself who cuts the umbilical cord connected to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation and let them find the ways, means and credibility to sustain themselves.
There really can be no other way, for the one-man show that is T&T football has certainly given many of our players tremendous opportunities, but at the same time, can we say that the game here has really progressed in the 20 years since the "Strike Squad" experience, even taking into account the "Soca Warriors" going to Germany three years ago?
That's one major issue. The other concerns the head coach. Of course, it can be argued that dealing with the latter is irrelevant until the former is solved. I get that, but still, this point about the role of a knowledgeable, strong and disciplined head coach has to be made. You just have to look at the impact that Fabio Capello has had on English football in such a short space of time to appreciate what someone with a track record of success and a no-nonsense approach can do.
From being knocked out in qualifying for the 2008 European Championships under Steve McLaren to reaching South Africa 2010 with two games still to play, this has been a remarkable turnaround, emphasised by clinching qualification with a 5-1 whipping of Croatia, the same team that humbled the English at Wembley two years earlier and precipitated McLaren's sacking.
More than his technical expertise, though, which is obviously considerable, Capello apparently doesn't take nonsense from anybody. He has brought out the best in his players, has earned their respect and taught them to behave like a real team on and off the pitch (they all arrive and leave as a squad for meals, for example), not by being pally-wally but by being straightforward. Strict but honest, he is the manager and they are the players. End of story.
Last year the English media were outraged that the Italian refused to give David Beckham his 100th international cap until the veteran playmaker had proven his fitness. But the message was clear: no man, woman, child, official, girlfriend, wife or agent is bigger than the team and will be allowed to get in the way of team objectives.
That was his message to the English Football Association before he took the job and they have given him a free hand, with sensational results.
Do we have what it takes to give our head coach, be it Russell Latapy or anyone else for that matter, similar freedom but on the expectation that clearly defined targets be met?
I suppose it again takes us back to the first major issue.
What you say, Jack?