Jabloteh slam national snubs.
By: Lasana Liburd (Express).[/size]
If Trinidad and Tobago national football team coach Francisco Maturana is shopping for fresh talent for the "Soca Warriors," he does not seem to think that Clico San Juan Jabloteh is the right outlet.
Maturana selected 20 players to prepare for the country's CONCACAF 2010 World Cup qualifying semi-final round but defending 2007 Pro League champions and current domestic leaders, Jabloteh, were again largely ignored apart from a lone pick in the form of 20-year-old playmaker, Ataullah Guerra.
Jabloteh coach and former England international defender Terry Fenwick did not hold his tongue on the issue.
"We are finding it very difficult to reason why Jabloteh's players are being ignored at national level," said Fenwick.
"We have only one player called up for the coming internationals. I mean no disrespect to the other clubs but we have a better squad and better players, which is why we are on top of the league.
"It can't be right we are on the top of the league and have such a young and almost entirely local squad and yet they are looking down the table for players."
Jabloteh hammered United Petrotrin 3-0 on Tuesday evening yet four Petrotrin players were summoned compared to one from the winning team.
Bottom placed Pro League outfit, Defence Force, outnumber Jabloteh by the same margin in the national set up.
The Colombian, since his debut outing against Guadeloupe in February, has shared 813 minutes of playing time between six soldiers.
Guerra was the only Jabloteh player to represent his country in the same eight game period-he played for five minutes against Grenada and 18 minutes against Barbados .
Fenwick complained at having to restore Guerra's confidence after each international fixture.
Guerra, like teammate Lester Peltier and free agent Khaleem Hyland, sparked interest from several British clubs including Portsmouth and Celtic last year.
But, while Hyland became an international fixture after ditching Jabloteh, Guerra barely managed two caps.
Guerra was selected in the national squad for their centennial match against England on June 1 but was dropped, two days before the fixture, to facilitate a cameo by Sunderland player and 2006 World Cup captain Dwight Yorke.
"Guerra has been outstanding for Jabloteh (this season) and is a tremendously gifted player," said Fenwick.
"He is six foot two, strong and wiry with a really good turn of pace. I am looking around the national team at the moment and I really cannot see anyone who matches him in terms of ability while he works his socks off too for Jabloteh
"I thought his treatment for the England game was very poor. Not only was he dropped but his money was cut although he trained every day with the squad. That should have been handled a lot better than it was.
"In my eyes, looking at the games that I have seen, I think he is ahead of a lot of the starters and that includes the foreign players."
Fenwick insisted that Jabloteh made their players available for national training whenever possible and claimed the club does more for the local game than their chief rivals, W Connection, Bmobile Joe Public and Neal & Massy Caledonia AIA.
"If you look at the other three big clubs, they are filled with foreigners," he said.
"We are trying to do the right thing to assist the national team and we have to ask ourselves what we are doing wrong."
He recommended teenaged box-to-box midfielder Devon Jamerson, central defender Karlon Murray and midfield organiser and captain Trent Noel as players who could immediately make a positive impact on the national squad along with former World Cup full back Cyd Gray, who is returning from injury, and, of course, Guerra.
"Anyone who saw Trent (Noel) against Petrotrin's (national midfield regular) Keon Daniel on Tuesday," said Fenwick, "would have to say the national selectors are mad.
"Daniel is a very good player but we have a couple of months before the qualifiers and we cannot wait for players to develop.
"We need players who are of age and are performing now."
National team manager David Muhammad was engaged when contacted by the Express and declined comment.
From all indications, though, Maturana does not seem to agree with the Englishman.
