Warner clears the air.
...'Salty' Noreiga tipped to take over.
By: Gordon Pierre (ttproleague).
Daryl Warner son of FIFA Vice-President Jack Warner and owner of local Pro League team Joe Public provided clarity to a number of issues that have been puzzling local football fans in recent times.
The biggest of those issues were the firing of their Cuban coaches after suffering only one loss since the Gold Cup break. The defending league champions are in third place on the table and still well positioned to defend their league title.
The young Warner stated, “The Cuban coaches and the vision of the board of the club have not been in line for sometime this season, but we were willing to allow them their space provided the results remained positive.”
“But after the loss to Defence Force they persisted in their policy of not selecting a number of the senior players who the management had brought into the club to help in our title defence and the Caribbean Club Championship run later this year”.
Speaking with ttproleague.com, Daryl made no bones about the firing of the Cuban contingent saying, “In professional sport coaches are hired and fired based on results and having teams playing according to the club’s vision.”
He pointed to the Premiership in England and cited Chelsea as an example, “If Mourinho did not win the FA Cup final he was gone, likewise as a club the board of Joe Public was not satisfied with style of play under the Cubans and they were not getting the desired results.”
When questioned on who would be the next Joe Public coach, Warner was non committal but pointed out that his club has five teams so a number of coaches were available to him, “As a club we have five teams in different competitions in Trinidad so we have a large number of qualified coaches, so anyone of them could be appointed.”
But when pressed further Warner revealed that Walt “Salty” Noriega who worked with Joe Public before and who is presently in England was heavily favored for the top job, “Walt Noriega who worked with us before and is currently completing a coaching course in England is one of our prime candidates for the top job,” he confessed and went on to add, “He is due back in the first week in August and is the coach who we are looking to carry us through this season.”
Young Warner who was full of praise for caretaker coach Michael Mc Commie gave his view of why Mc Commie may not be considered for the top job this season, “Mike is a great young coach but at the end of last season the club thought it would be better for him to get some exposure under the Dutch coaches that are presently in the country and so he was appointed to the National U-23 team.”
“With the U-23’s preparing for Olympic qualifiers around the corner it would be unfair to ask him to take up both jobs on a full time basis at this time.”
The man in charge of Joe Public day to day operations also stated that the Caribbean Club Championships was high on his clubs list of objectives this season, “We want to make an impression in the Caribbean Club Championship later this year and this was one of the major reasons for bring in the Cubans, to raise the fitness and speed of play of the team, but things did not work out and so we had to part ways.”
