Wayne 'Barney' Sheppard

Wayne Sheppard is the Arima North Secondary technical director and ex-Men's National U-15 assistant coach. He holds a TTFA 'B' coaching license and diplomas from USC, CANOC and TTOC. He is the co-host of the Burdie and Barney Show and a former T&T National U-23 and U-17 player.

Hadad and his crew are the only ones earning from football, while they suffer T&T players and coaches

The only people making money in football in Trinidad and Tobago for the last year have been non-football people. Robert Hadad is drawing upwards of TT$40,000 per month while Judy Daniel, Nigel Romano and Trevor Gomez are banking over TT$30,000 per month—based on the standard sums given to Fifa-appointed normalisation …

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Barney’s bible: The SSFL’s backward rule change; and what Yorke and Jordan did that our youths abandoned

So far I have only touched on youth development from a ball manipulation and decision-making viewpoint. However, playing in competitive games non-stop can also hinder the physical development and health of players.  Again, the local adage that ‘the more you play, the better you get’ is misleading on this count. …

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Barney’s bible: ‘The more games you play, the better you get’ fallacy leaves T&T players underdeveloped

Youth development in Trinidad, simply put, consists of tournaments and competitions. The Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL), Youth Pro League (YPL), Republic Bank Youth League, Next Level U-19 Tournament and Commissioner’s Cup are the main players in this arena.  I will use the SSFL as the starting point of the …

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Barney’s bible: Does T&T player development follow best practices? Are our youth competitions helping or hurting?

A question on The Burdie and Barney podcast during our discussion with former England Premier League and 2006 World Cup goalkeeper Shaka Hislop lingered long after that episode was over:  Have we been developing players? Or were we just blessed with talented players previously and, now, not so much?  At …

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