Former Golden Jaguars captain Christopher Nurse has questioned the narrative of a transition policy within the senior men’s football program, following the lack of opportunity for local players during the recently concluded matches in 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.
This was disclosed yesterday during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport. According to Nurse, “The narrative of exposure and opportunity for local players was not a significant feature of these two games. Yes, there was a cameo from Omari [Glasgow] and a debut goal, but on a whole it was more of the same. [Trayon] Bobb and [Daniel] Wilson have been fixtures in the national programme over the past decade so their inclusion is of no surprise to any Guyanese fan. I believe the Technical Director needs to step forward and take the lead in the narrative being pushed to the public and refer more to selecting the best squad available and stop muddying the waters and seeking public approval with a narrative that clearly is not evident.”
He further said, “Second round world cup qualification was a mandate for the head coach and he has already shown a lack of faith in the local youth that he has selected. You start your best players, or at least play them some part especially against a low ranked team as Bahamas. If you’re not using them, it’s because you don’t trust them. Jeremy Garrett was used in the media to defend the selection of local players and being afforded the opportunity. However despite being one of the most popular local players and the local captain he was an unused sub in both games.”
The Golden Jaguars rebounded from their opening 3-0 loss to Trinidad and Tobago on March 25, to secure a vital 4-0 victory against the lowly Bahamians. At the moment, Guyana sits in third place on three points, trailing St. Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago, who possess six and four points respectively.
The Guyanese will resume their World Cup qualifying campaign on June 4 when they oppose St Kitts and Nevis. They will then end their group campaign four days later against Puerto Rico. Only the group winner will progress to the second stage of the qualifiers.
According to Nurse, “Congrats to Guyana for getting the win vs Bahamas. Bahamas is not a good team and in their current condition neither are Trinidad. Trinidad had not won a game in 17 matches prior to defeating Guyana. By their own admission they did not play well vs Guyana however they scored 3 goals and kept a clean sheet, Bahamas have conceded 8 goals in 2 games and scored zero. I would have imagined that the local/younger players would have got the opportunity to start the game vs Bahamas, as this has been the narrative the Federation head coach has been pushing.”
He further declared, “However instead we went with a similar 11 to the one that started vs Trinidad. Which was 72% overseas based players [and] just Akel [Clarke], [Trayon] Bobb and [Daniel] Wilson (3/11) starting as locals. That figure actually increased to 81% overseas talent vs Bahamas with just Bobb and Wilson representing the locals (2/11) despite the opposition becoming significantly weaker.”
