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Everald “Gally” Cummings, the former national player and coach has said the country does not need a foreign coach to turn around the fortunes of T&T football.

In the wake of Tuesday’s resignation of national coach Tom Saintfiet from Belgium, the ex “Strike Squad” coach said, “We have the technical capacity right here among our local fraternity, but the problem is that they have been fighting and undermining each other for decades and has created a space for others to exploit.”

He called on local coaches to stop and take stock of themselves. Cummings who guided the T&T “Strike Squad” to within a point of qualifying for the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy, believes the T&T Football Association (TTFA)under president David John-Williams has been throwing away money by the hiring and firing of international coaches.

“We cannot be throwing away money, especially in times of scarce financial resources and with the TTFA in debt.”

According to Cummings: “This is not 2005 as there is no Dwight Yorke or Russell Latapy.

“It was Russell who changed the momentum and gave us that chance after his outstanding game against Guatemala.

“Before that coach, Dutchman Leo Beenhakker had suffered a 5-1 away loss to the Guatemalans.”

“Gally” is calling on the TTFA to appoint people who understand the players; know intuitively their special traits; our style and turn the team into an attacking dynamic and cohesive force in a few weeks time, saying he did it back in 1987 in a space of two weeks, when the country had lost to the United States.

He believes the time has come for locals to remove themselves from the shackles of colonialism and have confidence their own strength and talents.

He explained the country has been making the same mistakes for the last 20 years and more, yet expect different results.

“We need to ask whether we are getting the best technical advice and to let the population know what is the vision for football,” Cummings asked.