Give ‘The Saint’ a chance

The new TT national football coach has been given an ultimatum by TTFA president David John-Williams to get immediate results or get fired. Saintfiet must turn things around in the next two World Cup qualifiers in March (Panama and Mexico)...or else.

To his credit, the new coach seems to have taken the bull by the horns. He has cancelled Christmas holidays for his players to train for two friendlies against Nicaragua on December 27 and December 30. Will it be enough to save a stuttering Trinidad and Tobago World Cup qualifying campaign that has already started with two defeats — to Costa Rica and Honduras? Time will tell.

Saintfiet has a record of turning around flagging teams. About six years ago, he took Namibia up 34 places in the FIFA world rankings, taking that team to multiple victories and draws after it had a dismal record of winning only one game out of 12 in the months before his arrival. After these performances, the Namibian’s dubbed Saintfiet “The Saint”, and one newspaper went so far as to call him “The Messiah”.

Such is Saintfiet’s effectiveness as a coach that in 2012, he was able to remotely orchestrate a 3-1 victory for Zimbabwe while stuck in Namibia due to work permit issues. However, in 2014, the Belgian was fired as coach of South Africa’s Free State Stars after poor results. A three-year contract with Togo signed in 2015 ended early in 2016. And his tenure as Bangladesh coach did not start well: the team lost 0-5 away to Maldives.

The new coach will not have much time to implement his philosophy and new strategies. While he has orchestrated many aboutturns, the fact remains he has no experience in leading a team to a senior FIFA World Cup. In his first few days, however, Saintfiet continues to show the kind of mettle required to bring about results for better or worse. He made a bold decision to drop out-of-form captain Kenwyne Jones from the training squad completely.

The coach is keen on playing a faster style of play with speedy strikers, an approach that he craved while at Bangladesh. No doubt he will be aided by the fact that he has Russell Latapy and Jamal Shabazz as assistant coaches to help ease his transition into his new role. They will provide local knowledge of players.

Many have noted Saintfiet has experience coaching African teams. This has brought some scrutiny over his performance with these teams. He resigned in October 2011 as Ethiopia coach after a 2-2 draw with Nigeria. Soon later, in a move that raised eyebrows, he was appointed the technical director of Nigeria. However, the Nigerian ministry of sport later opted to have a Nigerian appointed to the post instead.

Even Saintfiet’s time with Young Africans SC was chequered.

Though he guided the club to win the 2012 CECAFA Club Cup/Kagame Interclub Cup, he was let go after two league games following disagreement with the club board.

None of this, however, can be taken as a definitive verdict on Saintfiet’s skills or lack thereof. And only with time will his impact on the Trinidad and Tobago team be made clear. Already ripples are being felt.

When news emerged that goalkeeper Jan-Michael Williams, midfielders Sean De Silva and Nathaniel Garcia were called up for training on Tuesday last by Saintfiet, ahead of the December international matches with Nicaragua, complaints were aired. According to Brent Sancho, owner of Central FC, Saintfiet was rather unsaintly in his tone and approach. But another team official said the coach simply expressed the view that there needs to be more professionalism, not acrimony, in terms of commitment by players. It’s all a rollicking start and we say TT must give “The Saint” a chance to whip the national team into shape.