Birchall says Warriors deserve better deal

The England-born player was referring to the fact that the Soca Warriors held the higher rated Sweden 0-0 and held the seeded England scoreless for 83 minutes in their World Cup debut.

Yet only two players were able to secure contracts as the transfer window ended last week.

And he is one of the fortunate ones leaving Port Vale for Coventry City on a three-year deal valued at ?350,000.

The other is Trinidad and Tobago captain Dwight Yorke who is now at Sunderland on a ?600,000 from Sydney FC in Australia.

Both moves are to the English Championship Division which is one rung below the Premiership.

There have also been movements for Dennis Lawrence (Swansea City), Clayton Ince (Walsall), Kelvin Jack (Gillingham) and Atiba Charles (Glenavon).

Also goalkeeper Shaka Hislop has taken up a position in the MLS from West Ham United but there has not been anything solid for Cyd Gray, Aurtis Whitley, Brent Sancho nor Densill Theobald.

One major disappointment is Carlos Edwards who despite all the paper talk, is still at Luton Town.

“I’m surprised that so much of our players got overlooked,” Birchall said on Monday. “I mean there are a lot of other players you see at the good clubs here who haven’t done much especially at the international level and they have decent deals. We represented well at the World Cup and players like Cyd and Aurtis I thought would easily get something. There is no doubt that they are good enough because I have trained with them and seen them play and I also see what goes on here.

“Our guys have proven it at the World Cup but apart from me and Dwight, I’m a bit shocked the others didn’t get something good as well,” he said.

“I know some of our guys are not well-known but we adapted well and while there’s been a lot of talk in the papers here about Carlos, he is still at Luton today,” Birchall said.

In spite of that, Birchall says he still thinks the accomplishment of the Soca Warriors has opened a lot of eyes in the UK and they can now share the big stage without feeling inferior.

“We definitely made a statement that has entered us into a higher level and it’s up to us now to remain there. The World Cup has definitely helped me because I have made a move to a better club and my career is going very well.

“Definitely Stern (John) and I are flying at the moment. We are probably feeling as fit as we were going into the World Cup because Leo Beenhakker really pushed us hard and now we are hoping to have another good push for the season.

“We are also very excited to play for the country again. All of us are buzzing at the moment and we hope that the country is feeling the same way about the football,” he said.

Birchall also said he was disappointed that Beenhakker did not stay on as coach of the national team but welcomed his assistant Wim Rijsbergen to the job. “I think if you ask anyone, they would tell you they were disappointed that he (Beenhakker) left because he was a quality coach and he took us to the big stage.

“But when you consider that the next best thing is Wim as the coach then you have all reasons to go for it.

He knows us all very well and we have worked well under him because we all know how heavily he was involved in getting the team ready. He knows what we can do as players. He may bring a different style. The thing about it too is he knows our weaknesses and strengths. He’s the man in charge and we’ll give him our best as players,” Birchall said.