We have the local talent to lead Trinidad and Tobago to the World Cup.
That's the view of David John-Williams, owner of T&T Pro League club W Connection, amidst reports that national senior football coach Russell Latapy is likely to be replaced by a foreign coach.
FIFA vice-president and T&T Football Federation special adviser Jack Warner has been reported as saying he has entered into talks with a foreign coach to succeed Latapy.
Latapy is the first local T&T coach since Bertille St Clair was replaced by Dutchman Leo Beenhakker in April 2005. Since then, another Dutchman, Wim Rijsbergen, and Colombian Francisco Maturana have held the post.
"I think that we only respect our local coach in T&T when that local coach has taken us to a World Cup or taking us through a lot of success," John-Williams told the Express yesterday.
John-Williams used 1989 "Strike Squad" coach Everald "Gally" Cummings to illustrate his point.
"Gally was a local coach, he did well taking us within a point of Italia 1990," John-Williams related. "Leo Beenhakker went one step further, albeit through a playoff. One would say that because of the success of the foreign coach we need a foreign coach. I don't subscribe to that."
The "Savonetta Boys" head does not think the relative inexperience of the T&T squad was their Digicel Cup Finals downfall, as he explained that at the club level, Trinidad and Tobago have dominated the region.
"Poor preparation", he believes, might have been the problem, with T&T failing to make it out of the group stage in Martinique last month.
"We qualified for the second round in November or something like that and the number of training sessions we had...maybe one or two before they went to Martinique," John-Williams pointed out.
"That did not augur well (for T&T), I believe. The last Pro League match being played on Friday (November)19, the team could have gone into Martinque on the Saturday and have at least seven to nine (sessions). Cuba went (to Martinique) pretty early and did well."
John-Williams also pointed out that although the coach usually gets the blame, Latapy had little help last year. He likened Latapy to the inexperienced former Argentine coach Diego Maradona.
"Argentina used (Maradona) to prepare the team to get them to the 2010 World Cup, however he was given a very good backroom staff…Latapy did not have a backroom staff to support him," John-Williams reasoned.
"It depends on the quality of staff you have. Leo Beenhakker was really a good man manager. A lot of the work came down to (then assistant coach Wim) Rijsbergen, who did a lot of the day-to-day work with the players. A lot of people didn't know that. Beenhakker was really the icing on the cake."
John-Williams, who has experienced much Pro league success with W Connection in the last decade, feels a recovery can occur this year for T&T's senior men. He suggested getting the national squad a lot of friendlies to help them get their team spirit and confidence back.
"I think once we get into a very comfortable and controlled environment for the players, coaching technical staff and administration, I think we have the capability of going very, very far," he concluded.