Williams quits as Petrotrin coach

The Strike Squad trio decided to throw in their towel after the sacking of another ex-national footballer Larry Joseph as the club’s manager last week.

Joseph’s removal stemmed from the recent transfer of striker Abiola Clarence to Superstar Rangers, which drew the ire of the team’s executive committee.

Club chairman Arnold Corneal said in an interview with the Pro League website, that Joseph was suspended for the rest of this season.

“We have the official document that Larry Joseph was suspended for the rest of the season and not fired,” Corneal said. “There have been discrepancies between the manager, coaching staff and the executive committee of United Petrotrin.

“We’ve had a number of club policies breached on numerous occasions by both Joseph and Williams which they have been warned about several times,” said Corneal.

“The executive committee of United Petrotrin expects the same level of discipline from the coaching staff just as they (the coaching staff) expect from the players.”

Corneal said that the executive committee issued a policy that decisions to contract and transfer players should be agreed to by the committee because it was a business proposition as well and one which Joseph did not adhere to on a number of occasions hence his suspension.

However the Petrotrin officials were not aware that this would have a ripple effect, as Williams, Jones and Lawrence handed in their resignation letters shortly after.

Evans Cadogan, manager of Petrotrin’s Under-17 team and a senior employee at Petrotrin, will act as manager while long-standing coach Edgar Vidale will add the coaching duties to his role as the club’s technical director.

Williams said: “The decision to release ( Clarence) was a technical staff decision and not just Larry Joseph’s.

“I was very surprised when I heard Larry was dismissed and very hurt when I heard the reasons given,” he added. “This sort of thing has never happened before at the club, the technical staff has always been responsible for making decisions on players so I don’t know what is different this time around.”

Clarence requested to leave the club, based on the inconvenience of travelling from Diego Martin to south Trinidad daily, which the manager along with the technical staff agreed.

“I could not stand by and continue as normal knowing the reasons Larry was fired,” Williams noted. “It would have been against my better judement, so I decided I had to take a principled stand and I handed in my resignation last Thursday in support of Larry.”

The dreadlocked former national right-back continued, “This is a sad day in football, not only for Petrotrin, and for South football, but also national football and its development.”

Williams looked on from the stands in Petrotrin’s match on Saturday against San Juan Jabloteh at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, while Jones and Lawrence took charge.

But Jones and Lawrence handed in their resignations with immediate effect late Saturday.

Jones said: “This is a stand we are making based strictly on principle, we cannot just continue with our normal day-to-day activities and Larry (Joseph) is out in the cold.

“It was a totally unfair decision by management and we can only hope better sense will prevail for the sake of United Petrotrin,” he added.

Jones said that the only way he sees the situation being resolved is if management is willing to discuss the matter and allow the entire staff to continue the job they were doing.

Williams, who was named the TT Pro League “Coach of the Year” in 2005, led United Petrotrin to a pair of titles in two years, the 2005 Lucozade Sport Big Six and the 2006 Toyota Classic.