After making an average four appearances in San Juan Jabloteh’s last fifteen League matches, many people would have already guessed that this was Aurtis Whitley’s last season with the ‘San Juan Kings’.
On Friday San Juan Jabloteh made the drastic decision to terminate their former Trinidad and Tobago international and World Cup hero’s contract ruling that the player is delinquent.
“He has been absent from quite a number of sessions this season,” said Coach Terry Fenwick in an interview with ‘ttproleague.com’ on Monday.
“It was the club’s decision and not just my own as coach. We have attendance records and it’s just a matter of recognizing where you are as a professional. Whitley was paid a lot of money and he didn’t live up as a professional,” said Fenwick.
Whitley’s dismissal now follows another high profile firing this season after Superstar Rangers parted ways with midfielder Kerwyn Jemmott during the TT Pro League transfer window.
Coming off an impressive showing at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the San Juan Jabloteh midfielder also fell out of favor by national coach Wim Rijsbergen and has since then failed to earn another international cap.
Whitley whose contract was expected to run until the end of 2007 last represented Jabloteh in a couple of reserve League fixtures.
Prior to Whitley’s dismissal, coach Fenwick had told ‘ttproleague.com’ that his marquee player had lacked passion.
He said that Whitley was a terrific player and he had showed what he is capable of in last year’s World Cup year, but just sat on his past success.
“He’s got terrific skills, wonderful ability but he lacks a little bit of passion, a little bit of commitment that kept him out of my team.”
However Fenwick expressed disappointment in the former T&T midfielder adding, “He’s a great player and I’ll be the first one to say it, but we’ve got our engines to keep running and we have to keep working hard to keep the shape of the team and he wasn’t able to do that,” said the former England international.