Najjar: Trust your instincts, Derek—you’re the best person for the job

When Austin ‘Jack’ Warner speaks about football administration issues and nuances, especially as it relates to Trinidad and Tobago, my advice is to listen.

Jack began with: “Trinidad and Tobago [are] basically grasping at straws where qualification to the 2026 FIFA World Cup is concerned.”

I understand the difficulty for us to qualify, and it is based on two components. The first is the brick wall position that we have found ourselves in regarding the growth of our local football.

The second is the exponential rise in stature by the once lower-level regional nations and the somewhat consistent struggles that we encounter when playing those countries.

The top six nations seem destined to remain there due to their strong and organized local youth programmes and lively, extremely supported and well-attended adult leagues.

In Concacaf, it has become customary to have two top tiers of six countries each. For several years now, Trinidad and Tobago have been tottering near the bottom of the second tier. This gives merit to Jack’s confident forecast.

Jack added: “First of all, we don’t have the talent at the top, and in terms of coaching, we don’t have that will allow our football players to succeed. We don’t have the competition at the bottom.

“Ask the average Trinidad and Tobago footballer to name five footballers in the country. He can’t. The average Trini cannot, and something is wrong.”

Though this comment does lend itself to some debating, Jack is measurably correct.

At this point I wish to give encouragement to Derek King and show why he deserves this period to become more established as the Men’s National Senior Team head coach.

At this level in global football today, with all the growth and ever-increasing marquee standards of player and coach qualities surfacing in every football-playing nation, it is not going to be an easy assignment for King to silence Jack Warner’s candid and nearly totally correct assessment.

In the game today, amid the technological explosion and ever-increasing fast-paced play and wide and deep content areas, along with forward-thinking player, coach, and spectator mindsets, a local-only bred and raised coach is facing a daunting task.

This is exacerbated by the fact that World Cup spots have already been allocated to three Concacaf nations: hosts, Mexico, USA, and Canada.

So assured am I of this statement, I confess that I would not accept King’s position with the hopes of continuing into the remainder of the World Cup qualification fight all by my lonesome head coach self.

This requires much, much more than self-belief. It is as Jack pointed out: the available money to recruit a stellar coach who understands the overall staffing needs and dynamics of a project as monumental as this.

My confidence aside, this is about experience, spread and depth of knowledge and a complete around-the-clock staff, each proven in the key functional areas.

This is not just for a good or very good player-coach and set of players. This project is for alert and attentive “wartime admirals/generals” with proven experience.

This cannot be seen as just a ward in a hospital but an entire hospital with all its “equipment”, associated needs, and hands on deck.

It encompasses preparedness and continuing technical and tactical functionalities of our players, and especially the psychological mindsets of Trinidad and Tobago home-based, raised and bred players and those abroad who still have intimate ties to their home.

It includes the clear, troubling set of player dynamics that are being made eligible through the now popular two-level ancestry path, which requires a great deal more “homework”.

This team of qualified personnel also takes on the task of scouting the opposition players when playing for their clubs and, in turn, countries—a Pulisic while playing for Serie A, AC Milan, and one who captains the USA.

To continue, Jack understandably shares that: “Derek King does not understand the nuances of coaching at the World Cup level, and that is the difference I am talking about.”

But while there is reasonably accurate cautioning from Jack, I am willing to congratulate the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association on Derek’s appointment as the interim coach.

None stands more qualified and ready in this hurried situation. Hutson Charles certainly would be one of my assistant coaches if I were King. Let us look at King’s credentials.

As a player, I recall King being a part of the national team back in 2000 under Ian Porterfield. In 2002 he was in the pool of Men’s National Senior Team players that I oversaw. He was born in the year I got married – 1980. I was 26.

PLAYING CAREER

King was named in the team for 2000 Concacaf Gold Cup and the 2005 Caribbean Cup. He made his international debut for Trinidad and Tobago against South Africa at the age of 19.

COACHING CAREER

Joe Public: In 2009, at 30 years of age, King won his first league championship as a manager with Joe Public, also winning the T&T FA Trophy and T&T Classic while being named T&T Pro League Manager of the Year.

Trinidad and Tobago: From June 2013 until November 2016, King served as an assistant coach of the T&T MNT under Stephen Hart. King was put in charge of the T&T U-20 for the 2015 Concacaf U-20 Championships.

Northeast Stars: In 2017, King led Northeast Stars to the club’s second-ever TT Pro League title. King departed Northeast Stars in February 2018 after the league imposed a new wage structure that severely limited the salaries of players and technical staff.

Santa Rosa: On 3 April 2018, King joined TT Super League side Santa Rosa and led the club to a league championship that season. He was subsequently named the league’s Coach of the Year.

HFX Wanderers: King joined Hart’s staff for Halifax Wanderers inaugural season in December 2018. In December 2019, King announced he was departing HFX to return to T&T.

Return to Trinidad and Tobago

Upon his departure from HFX, King was announced as the new assistant coach for Trinidad and Tobago under Terry Fenwick. He also served as the head coach for the T&T U-20.

King was also assistant coach to Angus Eve until Eve’s departure in 2023.

These are stellar credentials Derek Terrion King, and from my vantage point, no local personnel are more qualified, proven, and tested than you.

You have the experience, and this brings wisdom. And this wisdom component is the ability to convey messages successfully to all audiences in the least amount of time.

You are the coach, King!

To Jack, remain optimistic, even as we have already witnessed a telling 4-0 defeat to home team Honduras on Friday 6 September.

Remember, Honduras is a bottom Tier-1 team, currently ranked 7th of 35 Concacaf nations and 79th of 211 nations in Fifa, with T&T 11th, and 100th in Fifa.

We trail USA (16th), Mexico (17th), Panama (35th), Canada (40th), Costa Rica (49th), Jamaica (59th), Honduras (79th), El Salvador (81st), Haiti (85th), and Curacao (86th).

In our second game, at home, four days later, we sustained a major setback with the 0-0 result against French Guiana—ranked 18 in Concacaf (FG has no Fifa ranking due to its status as an overseas department of the French Republic).

After two games, we own a w-d-l record of 0-1-1 and a -4 GD.

To Derek, I encourage that you remain confident and true to yourself. With these two undesired results amidst player and staff payment quarrels, the next weeks ahead must be filled with analyses of T&T’s games, and reviews of Cuba’s games—as we play them next in a home-and-away, must-win situations on 10th October (home) and 14th (Cuba).

Cuba tied (0-0) away with Jamaica on 7 September and tied (1-1) at home with Nicaragua. After two games, Cuba’s w-d-l record is 0-2-0 and a GD of 0.

I was unable to see either game. Given that you have now seen your players through one strong, away battle to Honduras, and home to French Guiana, I want to ask that you trust your instincts and saddle them to your knowledge and game-coaching experience at this level—thereby bringing your entire team closer to you and your philosophy.

You must be always cognizant of all the pieces of the puzzle and never forget that every puzzle is best dealt with from an outside-in approach, sorting the edges and corners, first.

I pray that the T&TFA sorts out its financial problems, makes good with the entire team and sets the way for a full, transparent recovery. It is unbelievable that this plague continues from one administrative regime to another.

Where are the plans and promises? This is shameful, absurd, backward, regressive, and can be, to a large measure, dishonest!

As for you, Jack, we can’t deny that you have given us a lot, but by a wider margin, you left us with little.

Some say that “it’s better to teach a man how to fish than giving him daily supplies.” Likened to this cliché, I recall a former U-20 national player of mine using words that came from his heart and sound discernment that too many leaders “giveth with the one hand, and taketh away with the other”.

I have benefitted a great deal from being around you, JAW, but this most valuable experience didn’t come without hurts, hurts that we both recognized as they occurred.

You are a God-believing, church-going man, and I urge you to repeatedly thank Him, seeking to make better that which is given you.

Hannibal Najjar is a former Trinidad and Tobago national senior team and youth team coach. He considers himself a lifetime learner and advocate for the under-served and has been recognised for his contribution to sport and academia in T&T, Canada and the US.
He is a guest speaker on race-relations and curriculum planning and is working on his first book.