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Friday, October 25, 2002
This is the third part of the RBSC’s interview with Carl Brown conducted by Karl Wallace and Mosiah Marshall.
| MM: Some of us were concerned about the delayed announcement of the team (for the Japan game), at least publicly. CB: It's a good question and it is something people need to be aware of. I'll probably just illustrate something for you and eventually answer the question. Presently, the Gold Cup qualifiers will be played in Grenada, actually starts on the 9th. We have had something from CONCACAF requesting our squad of players from the 23rd of this month. We still cannot send that form in. As a matter of fact, I spoke to the President to ask the CFU for some time. Why? Because we are now in the process of trying to get some of players out of England. Now, once we are in that situation where we have to send requests and wait for an answer, the people who get these requests don't have to treat it with any importance or urgency. Particularly when it is not a date when FIFA compels the clubs to release these players to us. So, importantly, we have to be trying to build relationships with the clubs, we have to understand their situation. If you look at Bolton for example, we have two players there, they are third from bottom of the league, struggling, haven't won a game…for months now. It is difficult to say to them, we need two players, two players who are going to contribute as to whether they move from that division. So, you will find that it is going to be as late as possible in terms of confirmation. Once we get the confirmation, we can do that as much as we can. Look at the women, they are supposed to leave and you just saw Earl Bailey ask me if we can release the roster. What is happening? We are still trying to get the visas for the players. So you don't want a list like that to go out and then the players who are not on the list hear on the radio that they are not there. MM: But the question is going to be though, you knew the date for the Gold Cup, why did you wait so late to seek visas? CB: It is about selection. It is about assembling a group of players and working and then finally preparing and finalizing an eighteen that you are demanded to make. So, we could send twenty off, 25 names off to CONCACAF who demanded that 3 months ago. But the final 18 that you need to send to them would not be ready until 3 or 4 weeks after preparation. In looking about visas the demands from the embassies are always specific - these are the 18 that we need. MM: Okay, so you couldn't seek 25 visas…. CB: That's right, that's how it goes. KW: I want to be absolutely sure I understand. Would it have to do with funding? Because, take for example I am the national coach and I have a pool of forty players. Granted in every campaign, the unexpected happens. I would have visas for these 40 or 50 players six months ago, because it wouldn't be a problem. If it is going to take a couple hundred dollars to move a certain batch of players from here to a venue then all the preparations, the travel arrangements, etc., etc. would be spot on. You tell me the biggest stumbling block in working that. CB: You mentioned about money. Once you have money to do your thing, then fine. The US for instance took Landon Donovan back from Hamburg because he wasn't playing. They paid $9 million to Hamburg to get him back to the US to ensure that he plays. Now, we cannot do something like that for Bibi Gardner, for instance. We need Bibi for every game. We could not go to Bolton and say, we will take Bibi back to Jamaica. Bibi has not played for us since we played against the US, hasn't played for one reason or another. The qualifiers are coming up and I am almost certain that we will not be able to get him from Bolton. MM: Well, look on JJ. Everyone wants to know why he can't even make the reserve starting 11. CB: I will talk to you about that later. But Karl, that is what we are facing. Once you have money, certain things do not happen. Six of the women are in school overseas and when they arrive in school, you are not able to get them before 'x' time. So once you are faced with that sort of situation, that you not sure what is happening with those six, so you have 22 here, but, you know what, once these six are available, they are going to be in the squad. But you are preparing these to hear the worst tomorrow. KW: Okay, so contingency plans are in place. CB: Yes. I know the ideal situation is that we identify 400 national footballers, send them off to the US Embassy and everybody gets a visa. MM: But visas cost money. CB: It comes back to funding. MM: What kind of visas do they generally get? CB: For the time now, they are getting mostly one-year. I know you asked about Jermaine. When you look at Jermaine right now, probably what he did when he went to Bolton has worked against him. His first game was against Arsenal and I remember my first trip there I was talking to the captain of the team when we were coming back, and he said, Carl, when Jermaine played against Arsenal, we drove from London back to Bolton and nobody talked about anything but what they saw Jermaine do in that game. So that is the benchmark with which they measure him. He has not been able to go up to that point. MM: Why not? CB: I think it is probably the expectation was there because initially they had brought him in order to prepare him. And then after they saw the Arsenal game, then everybody was saying that he was ready, but in truth he wasn't ready. So it boils down to patience. The good thing about it is they have not lost faith in him. They have gone back to where they originally wanted him to be. The have been affording him games to help in his development. It has helped a whole lot in my being there. He came on in the Japan game and it is the best he has done, and I told him, this is what I expect from you when you get back to Bolton. The main reason for him not playing in Bolton is his transition from attack to defence. He spends 5, 6, 7 seconds thinking about what could have been, and then somebody from the sideline would have to shout, JJ!, and then he quickly goes back. We saw in the Japan game that once he goes up and we lose it he would get back. Never once did I have to shout to him. That is the part of his game that he has to improve on. That is the part of his game that they have spoken a lot about, that transition from attack to defence. Once he gets that going I am certain that we will see him as a regular fixture on the team. And as I said, Japan was very good for him. I said it to the coach when I went back. I said sorry you didn't see JJ… MM: Give him a tape (videocassette), man. (laughter) CB: what you have been saying is true. That was exactly what they are looking for from him. KW: There are two other areas that we definitely have to cover. We asked the same question of Mr. Downswell. One has to do with how well you work together as a technical group. How do you work together? What types of working relationships do you have? The other has to do with, we divide the way we approach Jamaica's football almost like two programs. What happens at the national level with the national team and what plans are there for development from the cradle coming up to the national team? CB: I think the working relationship is good. If you look at the people involved - Peter Cargill, Downswell, Jackie Walters, Christopher Bender, Howard Bell, Paul Bell - at some stage or the other, there is a common bond between each individual. Jackie Walters, for instance coached both Cargill and Bender at school level. Downswell has been part of our national team in the 90's. He was assistant to me from 1991. Peter Cargill is a player that I have coached so that transition from a player is there. Howard Bell has been a long associate, in terms of us playing together for all these years. Paul Young, another player who I have coached as a youngster. There is a commonality there between all the individuals. My personality has come to the fore in trying to afford all members of the coaching staff with as much information as possible. One of the ways we do that is every Monday we meet to discuss the week that went and the week ahead. We are slowly been developing that point. One of the things that I have tried to do is to meet with coaches. I have already started meeting with parish presidents. A lot of coaches out there don't see themselves as part of the national program. But if you get the man coaching a prep school to understand that what he sees Andy Williams doing now is what was done with Andy Williams at Mona, then he starts to feel that link, as far as it is, a 9 or 10 year old as opposed to a 23 year old, that he would start to see himself as that link that is not broken to the national team, then we will start get some to understand that they are a part of it, it is all about us, not just those people in the national coaching staff. KW: Do you work formally through the associations - ISSA, is there a Primary Schools Association?, the teachers colleges? Is there any chance to do so, if you haven't already? CB: Presently, whatever exists is not formally done. For instance, there is always this rift between the Manning Cup and the minor league. The coach of the minor league team is quarrelling with a Manning Cup coach. And why? Because they have never got together to reason out what the problem is. What we have done or at least started to do is to get to the schools. We have gone to some of the headmasters. This has not been completed because I was away, but it is something that we want to complete. Because once we reach that point where the headmaster understands what we are looking for. And when we talk to the headmaster, the differences are not great. The schools want to see an educated youngster and at the end of the day this educated youngster is also highlighting the school by playing Manning Cup competition for them. So we are not missed out there. We don't have anything like the academies in England, so our schools play a big role in the whole development of our players. If we move from the schools and limit the clubs, and the clubs play a big role in the development, if we get the coaches in the school to understand that this continued development will benefit both parties, that I believe is what is missing, that they don't understand that both parties will benefit from it. If you talk to the school for instance, (and the player gets caught in the middle of it), the player does not attend the Manning Cup training but he says he was at the minor league training. If you go to the minor league coach, by the time you finish talking to him, it becomes like the youngster who lives between the grandmother and the mother. And at the end of the day, he or she stops in the middle. We are looking to bridge that. The coaches need to understand that they have an important role no matter at what level they may coach. And therefore, one of the things we hope to do is to influence these coaches to do what is happening at the national level, because we have wasted a lot of time when we get players, good quality players, by having to teach them things that we want at the national level, when that should be done at the club and schools levels. KW: The coaching course, could you elaborate on that? CB:One of the things that we have done in the last two years, we have courses across the island and we have looked at approximately 1,200 to 1,500 coaches that have attended these courses. So formally, we have not met them as a group, but we have met individuals along the way so at the end of the day they know what is happening at the national level. MM: We would expect for the coaches who are conducting these seminars to try and reach the highest level. What are we doing to get there? CB: One of the things that has been afforded to us in recent times is even the FA course that normally we would have to send coaches to England to do, is now coming to us. The School of Excellence in Trinidad, the courses are now being conducted there, so Caribbean coaches can now come to this point and do the FA course there. All that can be done now in the Caribbean. These are the points where we now look to send our coaches. My stint for instance with Bolton, that's another area that we want to look at in sending our coaches, that sort of practical experience. Probably not the year like I did, but perhaps a month, 6 weeks, to look at what the reality of the whole professional football and what it entails. Part 4 of this very informative series will appear on this website on Sunday, December 1st. Please stay tuned! |