Former Trinidad and Tobago international midfielder David Nakhid, knows a thing or two about the beautiful game, having represented the Soca Warriors at the 1996, 1998 and 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cups, reaching the semi-finals at the 2000 edition. Although he has not been vocal about the state of Trinidad and Tobago in the recent past, the United National Congress senator is watching the state of football from where he sits in Parliament. Like every other football and Soca Warriors fan who are still hurting by the early elimination of the 2022 Qatar World Cup Qualifying campaign, he too was disappointed by the results. “You reap what you sow”, as Nakhid puts it bluntly, just outside of the St Mary’s Ground after a training session with his Academy. “When you appoint people like (Englishman) Terry Fenwick and you give him unbridled powers and you have people around the team that don’t contribute anything”, these things happen, said the former playmaker who scored 8 goals for the Soca Warriors.
The former Grasshoppers FC (Switzerland) midfielder said Trinidad and Tobago football has always been a case of knowing what should be done and not doing it. “We know that we have people in place who are not worth anything and we still put them in place. We have to ask ourselves who are we going to blame.”
“NO RESPECT FOR LOCAL COACHES”
David Nakhid who runs the David Nakhid International Academy, alluded to the lack of respect given to local coaches by our own, while other countries are seeking the services of our football tacticians. Currently Russell Latapy is the head coach of Barbados, while Jamaal Shabbaz heads Guyana Technical Staff and Stern John is the Head Coach of Anguilla. And although Angus Eve is currently the Head Coach of the Soca Warriors, it took a failed World Cup Qualifying Campaign headed by Englishman Terry Fenwick for Eve to get the job. “Historically” Nakhid continued, “we have to put our hand in the fire and get burned before we do what is right…We fired a Trinidad and Tobago coach (Bertille St Clair) who made it to the semi final of the (2002) Gold Cup. We fired him after, for not winning the Gold Cup”. Nakhid explained that while we have good local coaches, he believes that we do not have proper structure, proper organisation and we do not make the correct decisions. “You can have whatever you want, you can have the right coaches, right players, but if you do not have the proper implementation, nothing will be achieved.” The former Al-Ansar man said at some point in time we have to “stop talking and we actually have to do what we have to do. We have to put people in the right place, people who are willing to do”.
