Farewell, Latas and Yorke

July 02, 2001

It seems that these two "star" footballers, Yorke and Latapy, view themselves as being bigger than the nation itself. These two may have made "it" abroad, whatever that "it" may mean, and certainly they have been able to command huge, and in the case of Yorke particularly, mind-boggling pay days, but sadly they have not grown. They are still "little boys" with greatly inflated egos playing around with "stardom" and professionalism.

You are a professional when you have dedicated your life to the pursuit of technical excellence in a particular field of endeavour. That pursuit and honing of craft instills and ensures a certain embodiment of intense commitment to, and respect for, the inherent processes involved.

You therefore cannot be a professional without respect for the profession. It involves processes that are both edifying and humbling at one and the same time. A professional, if he/she is that, cannot help but behave and carry himself/herself with difference not only in the course of engagement in their chosen field, but in the course of all aspects of their daily lives.

Professionalism is not only about how much money one earns, it is more about one's approach to engagement. How much more careful then must one be when one's chosen profession also involves representing one's nation, decked in the nation's colours? Can you imagine the awesome responsibility involved in such scenarios?

Say what you want about Ato Boldon, that is one awesome responsibility that he has never attempted in any way to shirk and one to which he is always rededicating himself. Not so with Latas and Yorke.

And as we said before, the attitude of these two have been reinforced all along by certain cultural negatives quite pervasive in the larger society that is ours, eg the "picaroon" smartmanism, the belief in shortcuts, the value of "extempore" and "vaps" as opposed to patient, hard work and practice, etc.

In this context we were reminded recently of American athletic coaches back in the late sixties taking aspiring American quarter-milers to see the sheer natural beauty of the Trinidadian, Charlie Joseph, who never amounted to much, run the curves.

The aspirants would then be told: "The day you learn to take the curves like that Chap, then tell yourselves, you could run." Charlie's beauty, on its own, could not take him anywhere. That's the story so typical of us of T&T.

But besides these cultural negatives, we feel that Yorke and Latas have also been encouraged to indulge by the silence and lack of action by many who know exactly what is required of professionals.

Their two local-based managers, for instance, have been known to meet them at the airport to present them with rented cars and cell phones which facilitated them the convenience to move independent of the team and stay away from the authorised camp. Most times thereafter they would turn up at the camp late for practice and armed with their cell phone distractions.

Genuine coaches who understand what coaching is all about would never tolerate such behaviour. Porterfield did, so awed was he by the fact that these two were in the Premier Leagues of England and Scotland and so the technical staff bent head over heels and constantly made excuses to accommodate these two.

But to coach a team one has to manage the overall existence and the inherent inter-relationships of the team. But those of us who know of, and have followed, Simoes know that such an approach would never be tolerated by him.

Simoes dropped Walter Boyd, Blackka Pearl, one of the best footballers in Jamaica, due to his indiscipline, just as he did Onandi Lowe for his lack of professionalism, and he made it abundantly clear to all the British-based stars like Deon Burton, Sinclair, etc that they had to live with the locals, "eat what they ate and sleep where they slept or go back to England." Simoes got Jamaica as a nation to understand and accept this and Jamaica went to the World Cup.

What is most hurtful about Yorke and Latas over the years is that everytime someone attempted to discipline them for their breaches they would threaten, either publicly or not, to retire from representing T&T, and most times the management and the various technical staffs would relent and compromise themselves.

One can recall that Figge, a German coach, left here after mere weeks announcing clearly that neither the players nor the country were ready for the required professional approach. But the longest rope has an end. They have defiled the footballing aspirations of this nation enough! And each time they have returned after their "crimes" to mouth empty platitudes about "110 per cent commitment" and "love for their fans".

Let us begin to rebuild. Let us wish Latas and Yorke all the best and allow them to leave. Win or lose, we must be mindful that we have to build up new stars with a different approach to things.

We must begin immediately in our news production to down play Yorke and Latas. No free publicity must be allowed them from here on. News blank on them, period. What they do or not do from here on is their business. Wipe them off our front pages!

All our publicity endeavours must now be aimed at the other players we wish to build, like Nigel Pierre, who is as good as Yorke and could easily become better because he is stronger on the ball; Rahim, Saunders, Dwarika, Stern John (yet only the skin of his old self), etc.

There is, however, one person who can replace Latapy immediately and that is "Hardest" Jemmott, if he can be found and brought to bay. Other than Latas, there has been no sweeter and more accurate deliverer of the ball, in terms of timing and judgment, in the last 20 years.

The new structure should be built around him as centre. Find him now! Let Simoes take full control of him, his football and his life.