TRINIDAD AND Tobago Under-23 football team coach Angus Eve has slammed the treatment of local-based tacticians by the national associations and general public.
Eve, who replaced Serbian Zoran Vranes as Under-23 coach last November, is preparing for this month’s Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Olympic Qualifiers Final Round in St Kitts.
“A lot of people don’t respect local coaches,” explained Eve, who was the assistant coaches at two local clubs, San Juan Jabloteh and the now defunct Ma Pau SC coach.
“And if you watch the (TT Pro) League the majority of coaches are foreigners who have come in and have been given jobs. Also the national team because before me, Vranes had the (Olympic) team.
The 39-year-old former national midfielder and captain continued, “take a look at Derek King (a former Joe Public coach) who has done well as a coach in the League and won titles. “I myself have been there with Terry Fenwick (at Jabloteh) and we won titles and I’ve learnt a lot from him,” he added.
“I went over to Ma Pau SC and also won things there.”
Eve has the record for the most international appearances by a Trinidad and Tobago footballer — 117 (from 1994-2005).
He went on to state, “another shining example in the League is coach Anthony Streete (of St Ann’s Rangers) that don’t get a lot of credit.
He doesn’t have a lot of resources and he seems to always put in a good shift every time in terms of coaching the youngsters and getting them playing and organised in the right way. Rangers’ teams have never been easy to play against.”
Eve also highlighted the fact that long-standing Caledonia AIA coach Jamaal Shabazz, who also held a lengthy spell as coach of the Trinidad and Tobago women teams, has been hired as coach of the Guyana squad.
“Maybe that’s what we have to do, leave Trinidad to get an opportunity,” said Eve. “How are we going to get the experience when we don’t get the clubs to coach.
“I think that we have been going on all these courses and are fully certified and are learning the same thing that they are learning.
I went to the Digicel (Kick Start Clinic) over the weekend to see what John Barnes and the international coaches are doing and they are not doing anything different from what we are doing.”