ONLY a day before a decision on the future of national football coach Russell Latapy is made, former national captain and midfielder Travis Mulraine is calling on the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation to make the right decision in appointing a new coach.
He is suggesting that whether the coaching job stays in the hands of the embattled Latapy or is given to either Dutchman Ruud Gullit or Jean Tigana, the former French international, he would like to see the coach being used in two ways.
The first he said, will be to discover and develop new talent as well as provide daily on-the-field sessions for our national team.
He feels that the country’s football coach should be surrounded by a cadre of national coaches while he conducts development works at the Primary and Secondary Schools and other youth football programmes.
The local coaches he added, will be his understudy and will assist in the laying of a stable foundation at the youth level.
Mulraine said, such a system will serve to benefit the country in more ways than one.
“Firstly it will ensure that there is continuity in local football which means all football teams regardless of the division will play the same brand of football and secondly, a national coach would be pulled from this group should the incumbent coach leave.
This means that the coach, whoever he is, will be hired on a long term basis which include a period of four to five years and counting.
According to Mulraine, “The problem is not bringing in a new coach but bringing in one for the long term.
“Whoever it will be, should be able to scout players for himself and be satisfied with what he has available.”
Recent newspaper reports have highlighted either Gullit or Tigana to be the future coach of the Trinidad and Tobago “Soca Warriors.” Mulraine said that although Tigana appears to be the best man for the job in terms of coaching the senior national team and getting results for the short term, he would favour the recruitment of a Dutch coach to take the country’s football forward.
And he made it clear that it is because of the similarities that both countries have in common, where football is concerned.
He is saying that Trinidad and Tobago are a small country with very little or no money to spend on the sport.
“This means that player-development is critical if the twin-island republic is to qualify for more World Cups” he noted.
“A Dutch coach would help develop players from the primary and secondary school levels and thereby produce better players for the TT Pro League.”
The former San Juan Jabloteh coach is fed up of mistakes made in the past by the local football federation by recruiting top international coaches while the sport continues to struggle, listing some of the coaches that have benefited from TT, Dutchman Leo Beenhakker, Colombian Francisco Maturana, Scotland’s Ian Porterfield and Brazilian Rene Simoes among others.
Mulraine disappointingly noted that although these coaches have been in charge of our national team at one point in time, the country finds its football at its lowest in many years.