It is always bemusing

[Karl]

...when our players depart on and return without an offer claims are made on how well they performed...but...?

The simple fact is the performance was not of the quality to demand an offer.

How our clubs justify -
a) The performances were good quality but there was no offer...

...or...

b) how in their pauperized state they try to promote the idea that offers were received but were 'too cheap'/not of the quality expected and had to be refused in the context of nothing else on the table is amazing.

Additionally, do the club administrators tell the player with straight face that there is no other offer on the table but it is in the players best interest to turn back on a salary far superior to anything offered by the club and further when cost of living expenses are factored in that being on the books of a professional club is really all expenses paid + appreciable 'take home pay'?

The simple truth is there are players in Jamaica who could have made good wages when compared with that which holds locally who were denied opportunity for upward mobility and condemned to lives of poverty.

Many are the club administrators who have been shown the wisdom of long term planning and the need to point their clubs towards long term financial viability by, as they seek the 'big transfer dollars', an accumulation of 'residual income' through entering into contracts where -
a) the transfer sums reaped though initially nil or minimal payments -
i) build over time or accumulates over time through multiple players' contracts and or ii) contracts are so negotiated that as and when players value improve the local clubs earn accordingly.

b) The need to build relationships such that as the player quality within our clubs improve there would be access to professional clubs - either directly or via scouts and players-agents.

It is true on the one hand that deals sometimes fall apart...but on the other hand and from our local clubs' perspective of insolvency/'pauperized state' it is difficult to understand how with good negotiators representing our local clubs so many of our players are being denied a living because "the local club and foreign professional club" could not make the deal/have a meeting of the minds?

If we are to assume that our local club administrators are not living in a fantasy world then the only answer is - the players are not good enough to demand a place on the professional team. ...and if it is so, then coaching/local teaching is the bug-bear!!! ...and that improvement of teacher/coach = teaching/coaching quality is the clubs' job.

For too long our local quality of play has been 2nd form stuff. The clubs' are just not ambitious enough. They need to get in-line with true Jamaica culture -- of always striving for the stars=TOP OF THE WORLD!!!

[Mosiah]

I shall respond to this more fulsomely later but for now...put yourself in the clubs' position. If you keep allowing your players to leave for nothing or for far less than they are worth, at what point do you start earning their true value?

Many of these farin clubs want our players for free. And they can do this because many times the players are indeed free, without a club contract.

[Karl]

I shall respond to this more fulsomely later but for now...put yourself in the clubs' position. If you keep allowing your players to leave for nothing or for far less than they are worth, at what point do you start earning their true value?

Many of these farin clubs want our players for free. And they can do this because many times the players are indeed free, without a club contract.

I am always trying to put myself in the clubs' shoes.

Here in shortened form are some of the pluses:
i ) We have an unending supply of top quality raw talents;

We merely need coaches who can develop that talent to be comparable and in some cases surpass that which holds outside of Jamaica.

Just as our athletic coaches have produced youngsters - Yes...ISSA students who produce top world class performances both at their age groups and compared to seniors.

E.g. Many are the nations which do not have 100meters - 10.20+ or 200M 20.70+, etc. male runners.

We have trained and developed the teachers for Track and Field!!!

So what stops us at Football? Only the dunces or demotivated teachers drawn to football? Then that must be corrected.

ii ) This idea by clubs about players wanted for free therefore they are not allowing the players to go...is STUPID thinking!!! F!@#%$#@king STUPID thinking!

Let me ask - On a basic moral level...so you stop the player from making a living? ...and secondly, how does that benefit the club?

...but let's look a little closer - Every year top quality talented footballers come to the fore...every striking year...so what do the clubs add during the time the players are with them?

I shall answer the above - LOUSY TEACHING! RETARDING OF THE KIDS!!!
Look no further than Keammar Daley - A superb talent at 17 ...killed by Tivoli!!! For Christ sake Keammar is now at an age when he should be on par with Chelsea's Hazard. He has been robbed of his path to wealth!

He failed at Preston North End as he had not developed enough to have gone there as top quality player. When he went there he had POTENTIAL. That word that describes the 'aged' talented player... 20+ who is not good enough!!! ...who it is hoped will develop rapidly.

Look at the last U-17 squad. Many great talents! Ruined by clubs and sorry to say the national coaches.

iii) The clubs use poor negotiators and that has them holding onto their players until they become 'old' when it would have been best for the club and the player to be in that professional environment immediately after our U-17 effort ends.

Look our U-17 squads should be defeating our current top quality NPL club by 3 through 5 goals. Let us face facts our NPL clubs are in football terms 1st formers. (i.e below 2nd form stuff). Our best club would 'pick-up' 6 through 12/15 from a Reading. The bottom team in the EPL!!!

iv) The local clubs as they are preparing their young talents - have false opinion of their coaching...and thus their players.

*Go no further than Maestro. A superb talent. Slow yes...but if he had good coaching he would, within our quality players, still be a superb non-stop mover if the coaching was anything to write home about. He would be starting for our national TEAM if his coaching was even half-way competent. Tappa would not be 'hemming and hawing' if Hue was TOP QUALITY MOVER. With his passing ability he should be just a cut below Italy's Pirlo...certainly better than or as good as a Brian Luiz of Costa Rica.

All the guy needs to improve his defense and TEAM value...become indispensable to our REGGAE BOYZ...is non-stop movement both on attack and on defense.

Now I am thinking that in light of our failure upfront...to hide him upfront...hope for a little movement and passing into goal. ...and a playing with the midfielders and striker partner.

Why do I view the above as 'good'?
The clubs may lie to selves but they all know the above is true. All it needs is fixing!

[Paul Marin]

Karl - good coaches don't fall from the sky. What I think we need is a national "system" which has been talked about but it is not clear to me what that system is. Regardless, it would seem that it would have to be holistic, taking all facets of the game into consideration - administration, management, team coaching, specialized coaching, health, nutrition, development camps, coaching camps etc. etc. Maybe it exists, but I don't know of it...and even so...it is 15 years since '98...something should have taken root by now.

[Karl]

Paul: You are so on point. Good coaches as you intimated are, made!
The question that follows is, why do our local coaches not awaken similar drive for coaching knowledge the T&F coaches seem to all have?

...and why has there been no harnessing of that which you speak of

...holistic, taking all facets of the game into consideration - administration, management, team coaching, specialized coaching, health, nutrition, development camps, coaching camps etc. etc.

to produce results we are capable of?

As you have said, 1998 is a hell of a long time past!!! ...and even so it should not be about a repeat of attending at that height/gaining those heights...but surpassing same.

[HL]

I shall respond to this more fulsomely later but for now...put yourself in the clubs' position. If you keep allowing your players to leave for nothing or for far less than they are worth, at what point do you start earning their true value?

Many of these farin clubs want our players for free. And they can do this because many times the players are indeed free, without a club contract.

I am sure you are familiar with the 'supply and demand' concept in business.

I read through very few of Karl's epistle...but he has some very good points and suggestions.

[Rockman]

You have no problem doing tremendous reading(threads with many posts)but despise reading one that is twice as long as average(small regarding daily reads and tolerant if it was broken into sub posts).

To acknowledge that those posts are probably good read(you read for content)indicates that the culprit isn't Karl post becoming boring because of length but mental laziness in the search for the root cause of your problem.

One of the first thing you learn on a forum is being concise has its merits;less things for someone to pick apart.
Karl in retrospect is a damn good writer.

I happen to agree with Mr. President on this one though.

[HL]

[Rockman]

"I read through very few of Karl's epistle."
That is the only thing I took issue with, HL.

[Paul Marin]

Paul: You are so on point. Good coaches as you intimated are, made!
The question that follows is, why do our local coaches not awaken similar drive for coaching knowledge the T&F coaches seem to all have?

...and why has there been no harnessing of that which you speak of to produce results we are capable of?

As you have said, 1998 is a hell of a long time past!!! ...and even so it should not be about a repeat of attending at that height/gaining those heights...but surpassing same.

To me, Jamaica's problems all go back to basic education. To think that in the 60's we were the model of the developing world...but the tief dem, whoa, whoa, whoa, wata ago drown out me yeye dem. With a poor education, there is not much chance of developing anything. Maybe that should be the priority, and football will follow.

[Jangle]

Karl always amazes me with his writings. When he writes articles for the home page, they are sensible and coherent, but when he post here..........aaawwww bwoy. Jekyll & hyde......AND THE DAMN ???????'s