The new coach

[Assasin]

I hope the coach we hire is not just to win the next three games.

We want a coach who believe in youths, a coach who is not intimidated and will take chances.

We need to stop talk about development and act it. We need to understad development is not a wall. If Bolt, Asafa, Shelly Ann etc can do it on dirt track then why do we have to wait on Burrell with them Academy?

Too often our good 20 year olds can't make our teams, That simply mean we are not getting any better. Look at most of the better teams their good players are between 21-25 years old.

We need serious DEVELOPMENT and constant training for the youngsters more than anything else.

[Karl]

The first thing is you must understand how those 'young players' improved to be in thier national teams.

I'll tell you they are not there because they are young...but rather because they are the best.

You have always been promoting putting young players into/on our national senior team because they are 'young and have potential'. I am opposed to that. It is in my mind a nonsense policy. Our national senior team must always be the best we can put on the field of play.

The young players must be given the exposure with our national age group teams to develop. Those national age group teams must tour the world and play against the very best at their age group. Out of that a few will develop at a rate and to a level that DEMAND...as do other youngsters in the good teams across the world...INCLUSION in our national senior team because they are best qualified.

Do not try to fool The Massive and the fanz? mi a beg yuh...stap hit?! Those who know no better will believe you.

Those youngsters you see playing for Mexico, USA, Brazil, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, etc. are there not because they are young and have potential....but because they are the best available players those countries have. They went into those teams as best options! Sure some have grown while in their teams...but those are just cases of they being already best options improving even more!

It is the "also so ran teams" that keep putting unqualified youngsters into their teams. Those teams keep spinning their wheels year after year...and a few of those teams get luckly and "buck-up" a visit to the World Cup Final tournaments. That is not what we want for Jamaica. We want true development towards TOP OF THE WORLD.

Prepare and match against top opposition CONTINUOUSLY...our best national senior team. Give our age group players continuous preparations. Put them on world tours against quality oppositions...CONTINUOUSLY.

The cream always rises to the top...and thus our national senior team will keep getting better and better...and those youngsters with the quality to displace senior players will make the team. Eventually we will have youngsters with the quality of the best the world has to offer. They would have been well prepared and exposed...and would have DEMANDED through competence a place in the national senior team.

No compromise on QUALITY! We need to stop the continuous destruction of whatever little we build each year...each World Cup Qualifying period... instead let us keep building year after year on what we have.

[Assasin]

The fact is if we can't prepare our youngsters to play we will never have a GOOD TEAM.

I don't have to give a long paragraph.

[Karl]

The fact is if we can't prepare our youngsters to play we will never have a GOOD TEAM.

That is fact!
...but you keep telling everyone that we must just throw any youngster with potential in our senior team at the expense of better seniors. You are constantly suggesting weakening the team. The JFF must destroy the team by slotting in "youngsters who have potential" but not the required level of competence. That is the madness of which I speak.

[Assasin]

Well if we are not developing the younsters to force their way in the senior team we will never be a strong team because regardless of what you think we are not a strong team now.

[Karl]

Well if we are not developing the younsters to force their way in the senior team we will never be a strong team because regardless of what you think we are not a strong team now.

Well I think we are not a good team. I think many of the players have less than required skills. I think you are seeing the same on the field play I am seeing - problems with retaining possession/giving away of the ball -frequently. Players having problems with thinking! ...etc.

Players just of poor quality. The frightening thing is some of the players considered good material for the professional leagues are playing crap. With the level of play we see from some...I have doubts on whether or not they could step into past Jamacia Division 1 teams.

How then do we raise the standards?

i) Greater effort and focus on those who teach the game at the preparatory/primary levels and at the high school levels. Training of those who 'coach' at these lower levels.

ii) Increased cooperation with the teachers colleges...including the GC Foster of Sports and Physical Education with aim of raising levels of competence of those who are being sent throughout the island to introduce our young to the game and to teach our young the game.

iii) Increasing competence of those teaching/'coaching' at the level of parish clubs and NPL clubs.

iv) Provide continuous development through exposure of our national age group teams to world's best age group teams.

v) Provide continuous preparations for our national senior teams to world's best teams.


NB: The local competitive structures are already in place...but needed is improving those structures and improving any support structures necessary - better fields, larger cadre of sports medicine personel, increased funding, better managed and operated parish associations, confeds, clubs = greater support for those who play the game, better teams, better pool of players from which national teams are selected.

[Assasin]

If we are not a good team and we training youngsters properly then they shouldn't have a problem breaking in, should they?

[Pbanta]

I agree very strongly with your statement BUT development MUST take place with developing coaches who are capable of using what is going outside the Island of Jamaica and that which is suitable to the Jamaica players attributes. It is not the American, English, Brazilian ways. Jamaican Footballers do have great God given characteristics just as the athletes have. Something need to be fixed fast and not wait. When are we going to do this and be committed and stop talking about the problem and never look back.

We can speak all day about player development but the coach and player is married to do this thing called quality football development and they must cooperate together for the great good of the person, team, society and country. All this must take place under a plan which reaches beyond the seashore lines of the island and beyond concacaf. This can be done but $$$ must be put into development of the lives of young male and female footballers. Give them hope and stop killing their dreams and the dreams of Jamaican. By the way I have a written plan that will work....

Best wishes and keep dreaming because they will come true.

Paul Banta
pbanta@sc.rr.com

[Warlord]

The fact is if we can't prepare our youngsters to play we will never have a GOOD TEAM.

I don't have to give a long paragraph.

The problem is more than just preparing our young players. We have to have the ways and means to do it. The USSF has invested heavily in football development over the last 15+ years. What you see today of US teams is a clear result of that.

What have we done since France qualification? We have not given a penny to youth football development. It embarasses me that a nation like Haiti who is poorer can have a better youth structure than we have.

[Karl]

If we are not a good team and we training youngsters properly then they shouldn't have a problem breaking in, should they?

...but as we do with our seniors, we are not training the youngsters...on a continuous basis. It is amazing to see us expecting our players to improve when the national teams are disbanded after every time we are booted from a competition?