Act of desperation.
By Fazeer Mohammed.[/size]
Question: What does the imminent return of Dwight Yorke to the senior national football team signify?
A - Hope
B - Wisdom
C - Desperation
D - All of the above
One option that isn't included in that list of possible answers is the absence of proper planning. But then again, the vaille-qui-vaille way of doing things around here is understood--in sport or anything else for that matter-so that your choice of answer is made in that context.
Yes, there will be hope. Why not? Even at the age of 36 (he will be 37 before our last CONCACAF semi-final round World Cup qualifier on November 19), Yorke still has a lot to offer as a footballer on the international stage. His experience and influence on his teammates in the last seven months of the 2006 qualifying campaign were one of the significant factors, along with the acquisition of Dutch coach Leo Beenhakker, that turned what seemed yet another doomed effort completely around.
As a professional, it is expected he will leave all of the off-field issues, like the promised World Cup bonuses that still remain a bone of contention for the vast majority of those who represented us in Germany, in the dressing room when he trots out again for training or competitive action in national colours.
He has just signed on for another year with Sunderland in the English Premier League, where the manager, Roy Keane, values the Tobagonian's vast experience and calming influence, even in the high-pressure, cut-and-thrust environment of one of the most competitive leagues in the world.
So there should really be no question as to whether Yorke can cope, physically or temperamentally, with the requirements of another World Cup qualifying effort.
But is it a wise decision? Well, that depends on how you look at it.
If objectives and goals are always seen in the short term, then quick-fix measures will naturally be the order of the day. It goes without saying that a footballer less than four months away from his 37th birthday is not an investment in the future beyond South Africa 2010, and even getting there is shaping up into a much tougher challenge than making it to Germany '06.
In essence, this becomes a trade-off. On the one hand, you run the risk of further hampering the development of locally-based talent if there is always an unwritten fall-back position of abandoning any sort of rebuilding programme and patching things up with disgruntled established players when you sense that you're on the edge of the precipice.
Still, at the end of the day, we are like every other nation that aspires to footballing greatness, or at least a place on the greatest stage of the most popular sport on the planet.
Debates about right and wrong, just and unjust are readily cast aside in pursuit of expediency. Agonising about the absence of proper planning and structure takes a backseat to the more immediate desire of somehow making it to the World Cup finals.
In other words, the end justifies the means, and it will be hailed by all and sundry as a wise decision to welcome back Yorke if we get to South Africa, while elimination at the semi-final hurdle will trigger widespread condemnation from those who were hedging their bets because they didn't want to be seen as unpatriotic so long as the dream remained alive.
So, however the explanation is decorated, this is an act of desperation. You really think that Jack Warner would have entertained any discussions with the former national captain a week ago had we annihilated Bermuda? No sir.
In the aftermath of the humiliating first-leg defeat and ultimately successful scramble to make the semi-final phase of qualifying (where the United States, Guatemala and Cuba await) Yorke knew he was knocking on an open door in seeking a meeting with the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation's ultimate decision-maker.
Over the next few days and leading up to the kick-off of the semi-final round in Havana on August 20, we can expect both men to speak of each other in glowing terms and with straight faces, although both will know that the game they are playing involves as much strategising as anything Francisco Maturana will be engaged in ahead of the clash with the Cubans.
By continuing to make the key decisions, as has always been his style, Warner has essentially emasculated yet another national team coach.
Why would he choose to continue to stay in a job in which he really has no say, except when his perspective coincides with that of the CONCACAF boss? That is for the Colombian to answer, although it may be too comfortable to contemplate and he just prefers to do the job as best he can, collect his salary and anticipate the inevitable sacking should things go from bad to worse.
Maturana has already endured the humiliation of being grilled by local coaches, each of whom is utterly convinced of the brilliance of his own philosophy on the national game and the national team, and must now fully integrate Yorke and the other returnees into his system in less than five weeks.
In reality, though, it is the coach who would have realised by now that he is the one who has to be in constant adjustment mode, for there is no multiple choice to the query as to who runs football around here.
Unquestionably, Jack is the man.
