Rahim slams Falkirk boss

The former St Anthony’s College player was responding to recent statements by Falkirk boss John Hughes accusing him of going AWOL last year.

Rahim, now attached to top local Pro League team CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh, has claimed that Hughes had sidelined him when he had returned home on various occasions to represent the Soca Warriors in World Cup qualifying matches dating back to 2004.

Rahim later chose to seek a future elsewhere as his contract ran out at Falkirk because he was constantly being left on the sidelines. He said his move prompted Hughes made statements that were “unfair” to him.

“I took a decision to come back and play for my country on several occasions under the permission of the Falkirk club and always struggled to get back into the club team on my return.

“In some cases I was left totally out of the team and now I was reading that Hughes said in a story with a local newspaper that I left on an AWOL.

“It was unfair for him to make such a comment because at the time to me it seemed that they had problems with me choosing to play for the country. From being their best young player of the year the previous season to moving into a regular position in the team but then finding myself always on the sidelines was hard to understand,” Rahim said.

The former West Ham United player, who has 49 international appearances for TT, said he took a decision to always return to play for the Soca Warriors because he wanted to assist the team in trying to get to the World Cup Finals.

“But it all backfired because it made me look as though I didn’t have a clue about what I was doing because not only did decisions not to play me affect me at the club but it also meant my place on the national team was in jeopardy,” Rahim said.

“I have since taken a decision to come back home and join Jabloteh which is one of the local clubs that has a really good setup and my aim is to not only try and play regularly and keep myself in shape with hope of getting a call to the national team again, but I also see myself being able to make a positive contribution to the development of some of the local players that are coming up the ranks,” Rahim said. He has also campaigned with Levski Sofia in Bulgaria and recently had to cut short a stay at Dallas FC because they had signed their full quota of overseas-pros.

Rahim was also previously in Leo Beenhakker’s squads until a late calf injury ruled him out of the 1-0 loss to the United States last August. He is however back in Beenhakker’s list of home-based players currently in training under assistant Anton Corneal.

Meantime, Rahim’s close pal, Brent Sancho has had some reason to smile again after also going through a rough patch with his club.

Defender Sancho made a rare appearance for Gillingham on Tuesday and netted in their 3-2 win over Brentford. Previously Sancho was blasted by the club’s management for choosing club over country and was left out of the team and then priced out of the market when he tried to go on loan recently.

“It definitely has been one of the roughest periods since I moved to England. Not only because I have been left off the squad week after week but because it came at a time when I needed to be playing with World Cup team selection around the corner.

“I was in a position where everything was out of my hands even though I was fit and ready to go. Now I have hopefully done something that will give me some more playing time and I think the fans saw it in the last game.

“They were singing my name right around the clock and hopefully the management got the message because the fans were also expressing their disappointment with my absence from the team.

“But I’m leaving the rest up to God. I know this is a very critical time for all the players from the national team and I think we all need to be supportive of each other and hope for the best as the World Cup comes up,” Sancho said.