St Vincent coach: All T&T teams are losing, maybe the problem is administrative support—not Lawrence

“Last time I checked, all your teams are losing—from male to female. Is it that all your coaches on the selected national teams are no good? [My] advice [is] look for the solution elsewhere…”

The following Letter to the Editor by St Vincent and the Grenadines coach Dale Mercury was posted on the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association’s Facebook page. SVG, ranked 176th in the world, beat the Soca Warriors 1-0 in Kingstown on Sunday 11 August 2019:

Photo: Soca Warriors head coach Dennis Lawrence (far right) poses with TTFA president David John-Williams (second from right), team manager Richard Piper (second from left) and Camara David (far left) in 2018.
(Copyright Alan V Crane/CA-Images/Wired868)

I always follow Concacaf football [and] I’ve been following T&T football. I need you guys to ask yourselves an honest question: is it the Senior Men’s coach’s [fault] why T&T is losing?

Last time I checked, all your teams are losing—from male to female. Is it that all your coaches on the selected national teams are no good? [My] advice [is] look for the solution elsewhere.


Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are not the team we used to be when you knew us. We took over the team six months ago; before that the team was losing [and] damaged. We came under a different administration who were willing to listen to us.

We’ve been training five days per week for the last few months. We met serious problems with the team [and] we’re still far off from our targets but we’re looking for solutions. [Without] support from administration, we can’t get anywhere near these targets.

A coach is as good as the support he has from top to bottom.

Editor’s Note: At present, the Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Senior Team are on a nine match winless streak and have not won a football match since a 2-0 triumph against the United Arab Emirates on 6 September 2018.

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