Warner off for meeting with Leo & players in London.
By: Shaun Fuentes.
Special Advisor Jack Warner along with General Secretary Richard Groden and Team manager Bruce Aanensen will arrive in London on Saturday morning to hold further discussions with Members of the “Soca Warriors” based in the UK on their earnings for having qualified for the 2006 World Cup.
Warner, the main financier of the team, felt it was necessary to meet face to face with the players to discuss the settling of financial compensation which is coming from the TTFF.
They will meet on Sunday evening in London with the five-man representative followed by a meeting with the other available players based in the UK who were part of the team during the 2006 qualifying campaign.
Warner will also meet with head coach Leo Beenhakker and assistant Wim Rijsbergen on Saturday at the Sheraton Hotel, Heathrow to discuss plans for training camp and warm up internationals.
“The fact remains that the team and its preparation for what it does in Germany is the most important thing and we must ensure that these guys are well taken care of,” Warner said.
Beenhakker and Rijsbergen have been in England for the past few days looking at possible sites for a training camp leading up to the World Cup in June. He visited Colliers Park on Friday, home venue for Dennis Lawrence’s Wrexham. Agent Mike Berry was also in attendance.
“He spoke to me for a brief and seemed impressed with the facilities but he will continue to do his homework,” Lawrence told TTFF Media. “It was good to see him again for the new year and like the rest of us, he appears to be in good spirits ahead of our next training camp.”
Beenhakker and Rijsbergen will arrive in the country next week and Beenhakker is expected to finalize arrangements for T&T’s build up. He will oversee a few sessions here before returning to Europe later this month while Rijsbergen will stay on to continue sessions with recently appointed assistant Anton Corneal.
Corneal carried out a session for US-based College players at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Dr Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence on Thursday. The main purpose of the session was to look at players capable of representing T&T at the Under 23 and even senior teams. These players were not part of the Goal 2014 training camp last week.
“Generally we got the opportunity to see players who we haven’t seen in a year or in some cases two years,” Corneal told TTFF Media. “It gave us a chance to see how they compare with the home-based players from our schools and Pro League teams and I think I can safely say that we have some prospects for the national team at least some time in the future.” A video recording of the session was done in order for Beenhakker to have a look.
“He (Beenhakker) will be the one to make the final decisions with regards to what plans are put in place for sessions locally and as to which players are recalled or looked at in the future,” Corneal added.
The players looked at on Thursday included:
Kyle Cupid (Liberty College), Terrance Williams (Mayville State University), Julius James (University of Connecticut), Dean Logan (University of Mobile), Judah Hernandez (Florida International University), Frederick Douglas (Philadelphia University), Stephen Cruikshank (Southern Connecticut State University), Darryl Roberts ( Liberty College), Abiola Clarance (Incarnate Word University), Keeron Benito (University of South Florida), Regan Tommy (St Thomas University), Dale Perez (Mayville State University), Anthony Noreiga (George Mason University), Osei Telesford (Liberty University and Mbwana Johnson (University of Buffalo).