St Clair to trim squad to 25

NATIONAL coach Bertille St Clair has made a call on football fans to be patient with his team as they continue preparations for the “Journey to Germany 2006” and theWorld Cup campaign.

St Clair said on Thursday, following Tuesday’s game against a Brazil All Star team, his aim is to have a settled squad of 25 players for his first round World Cup qualifying challenge later this year. He remains confident he will have the players he needs for the campaign, since he has spoken to both local and overseas-based footballers, who he said are all committed to the cause. “We are in the process of building a team for the World Cup and we need to have some patience. “We have  a pool of about 46 players, here and overseas, and we need to work with them and give every player a chance. “We have several friendly internationals coming up and we will expose all the players.

“By June we want to have a group of 25 players who will form the squad for the first round of the World Cup matches,” St Clair said. He said: “For the Brazil game we wanted the team to get into the habit of possessing the ball and moving it around and I think they did this reasonably well. In other games we will work on different things. “Right now I am spending a lot of time explaining the type of attitude required, because I want everyone to understand that we need a high level of mental toughness. “Players must have pride in representing their country and must be committed. “No player must feel he is bigger than the team and he must get special privileges. We do not want any prima donnas,” St Clair ended.