PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Recently sacked Trinidad and Tobago head coach, Stephen Hart, says the national programme is badly in need of an administrative upgrade and believes any success the national side achieves will be as a result of “luck.”
In his parting shots after being fired last week, the 56-year-old pointed to several areas in the programme which he said needed a more professional approach.
“I think Trinidad football needs to become way more professional in everything that surrounds the team – from a scientific point of view, from a travel point of view, from a logistics point of view, and just basic planning and funding,” Hart told C Sports Live.Sacked Trinidad and Tobago head coach, Stephen Hart.
“There’s a lot that could be done and any sort of success you have in the present way that we work is rolling dice. It’s really luck or fluke as we would say.”
Hart led T&T for 3-1/2 years but his tenure ended after the side lost both their opening games of the final round of CONCACAF qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup earlier this month.
They opened their campaign with a 2-0 defeat to Costa Rica at the Hasely Crawford Stadium here before losing 3-1 to Honduras at the Estadio Olímpico Metropolitano in San Pedro Sula a few days later on November 15.
The results left them one from bottom of the six-team group but Hart said he had been confident T&T could turn around their form
.“They (football association) were not happy with the two World Cup results and even though I had confidence that the players on this team, and with the injection of maybe a few new players, … had the capability to turn it around, the association did not see it that way.”
Hart enjoyed several high points during his time in charge of T&T. He twice led them to the quarter-finals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup and also guided them into the final of the 2014 Caribbean Cup before losing to Jamaica.
Under Hart, T&T enjoyed a good run in the recent semi-finals of the World Cup qualifiers when they lost just once in finishing second in Group C to United States, in progressing to the final round.
Hart, a former coach of Canada where he currently lives, said he had nothing but good memories of his time in charge of Trinidad.
“My staff have been fantastic, the players it was a joy to work with them and really and truly I just wish everybody the best of luck in the campaign.”
