The El Salvador team had 4-7 olympic of the olympic team players on it.All that proves is that their b squad is about on the same level as our c squad. That said, all of this is completely peripheral to the discussion.
Warmonger (with whom I rarely agree) has brought up a very important point.
CAN TNT afford to continue to play its current squad on even the preliminary level of WCQ ?
In other words, on a purely sporting level, can we permit the player impass to continue after February-March (prelims likely to start in that period) ?
Some would argue (all emotions aside) that neither one of Bermuda or Cayman Islands would merit us playing our full side - and they would probably be right. However I think that some sort of goodwill statement has to made, from the TTFF's side right at the beginning of the campaign.
While it would probably be counterproductive to pull the Sunderland duo/trinity, Stern, Scotland etc out from the relegation/promotion battles for a game of this calibre, some positive sign should be made to the local blacklisted players as well as some of the MLSers/League 2 players who haven't seen the squad in ages.
Any of the blacklisted left out who would normally make the side should be given an official explanation to reassure them that their non selection is a favor done to their club careers that the TTFF hopes would facilitate their releases later on in the campaign etc
To facilitate all of this, the TTFF would need to organise two levels of friendlies (basically an A and an A' team), to permit the A team to gel after such a long layoff, despite not playing the prelims, and to allow the B/C team to continue to display any revelations in its midst. I know this is a lot to ask for but it has to be done somehow. This could be the perfect occasion to organise a gala match against Jamaica in London for the A team, whereas the B/C team could give and get some good practice by playing one of the stronger sides that will be heading into prelims and not in our bracket (eg st vincent) on another date
by the time the new season starts we should be blending the marquee players in with those that have shown promise. Some clever man management will be needed, but if everything goes well, by the time the Hex comes around, we could be cooking with gas.
Of course all of this assumes that all scouting and training camps will be regularly scheduled
