“[…] What real advantage has a team possibly gained by registering their players minus the school stamp and principal’s signature? None that I can see. “What real advantage has a coach gained by sending messages asking the governing body to check the player registration list and let him know if …
Read More »Barney: How stretched, direct T&T played into Nicaragua’s hands—and Auvray-Julien combo was underutilised
“[…] Triston Hodge, by nature, is not as attacking a full back as Keston Julien. In a situation where we need to win and a draw and a loss equate to the same thing, why are we taking off one of our more attacking threats? “From where I sat (admittedly …
Read More »Barney’s bible: Fixing T&T football—standard curriculum, ‘shadow teams’ and new SSFL age group
Leave the egos at the door and instead bring bags and bags of patience. Fixing our football will require much more time than it took to drive it down to its current position. For too long, we have attempted to hold conversations in which each leader tried to look like …
Read More »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 …
Read More »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. …
Read More »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 …
Read More »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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