National coach Bertille St Clair should be the last person in the world to be surprised if, in truth, his neck is "on the line" , as he put it, in the wake of Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean's World Cup hope, finishing with a bronze instead of the expected gold in the just concluded Digicel competition in Barbados. Not only should the old Bertille know the football score but I am sure he had friends who had warned him even before I laid out a possible sad scenario was back in November 2004:
"Back there I was wondering how the old Bertille St Clair, proud no-nonsense Tobagonian that he is, would react to what I took to be a diminution of his authority, all those former football high flyers put to buttress him following, let's face it, Trinidad and Tobago's dismally discouraging performances in the first round of the World Cup qualifying examination.
I remember a friend of mine on the announcement of Bertille's appointment enquiring of me, his mind already made up, asking me what new he could possibly be bringing to the coaching table, the question unfair to my mind since, as I remembered it, Bertille had been dumped after spearheading a decent Trinbago run in the Gold Cup competition of that time.
Still, I had to reflect on his query as Trinidad and Tobago stumbled to a place in the second round, Jack Warner right in observing that we played badly but had a good draw, the fans knowing now that had we been in the Jamaican half of that draw there would be no need, at this stage, for any one of the players to learn how to say "Good Morning" in German.
In the run-up and in the aftermath I noted Jack's looking-ahead moves, the man, laughingly described in the press as the national side's "Special Adviser" doing what he has always done and, presumably will always do, which is to define and determine the national football interests, hardly surprising when he used to do all the work when he didn't have money and now spends all the money trying to make the thing work.
That, there, is a matter I intend to take up with the powers-that-be, private and public sector, in due course since I cannot imagine the country not buying into this, our latest World Cup goal but I don't want to sidetrack from what I construe to be the coaching-by-committee issue Bertille, surprisingly to me, seeming to be well-on-board.
Since he is, far be it from me to knock it, but I wait to see how responsibilities are going to be divvied up or, more crucially, to whom blame is going to be apportioned if, Lord forbid, things go woefully wrong from early and "by early" I mean before the next World Cup round and during the "Digicel" dry run, as it were, manifest failure there sure to result in a roll of one or two of the current heads, if not more, Graham Taylor, to my suspicious mind, lurking large in the background.
All of which is to say I am not sure this rallying of the technical troops is going to work although, Lord knows, something radical has to run, 15 years after November 19, 1989, I keep hearing widespread lament 'bout lack of a midfield, this in a country that used to churn them out like ice-cream, the likes of Gally, "Latas" and, perhaps, just perhaps, supremely de Leon, smoothly linking defence and attack (and I am sure there are old-timers around who will dispute that they were the cream) , the question, then, what the hell is wrong with Trinidad and Tobago's football, part of the answer, I am sure, manifest in the giddy goings-on of school football..."
So now we shall see what we shall see. But one thing we have repeatedly seen where Trinidad and Tobago is concerned, and not only in sports, is that nothing is ever so simple here. I mean, if we had lost to Barbados and been thrown out of the Gold Cup all now so we could be sure that Bertille would be back in beautiful Tobago planting peas or whatever (not that bad an option, come to think of it). But disappointing as our placing undoubtedly remains we got into the Gold Cup by the seat of our pants which means that the coach may still hang on by the skin of his teeth the larger question, of course, being the national hurt that this team seems to be in no great hurry to improve.