The following link and article below are taken form the Daily Gleaner's online edition dated Thursday November 30, 2006. I hope there are no copyright issues involved here but I just had to reproduce this for all you guys who don't read the Gleaner to see.
I think this guy is quite incredible in the things he says. What makes the trio of Maxwell, Brown and Downswell the best qualified coaches in Jamaica? Okay, they may have credentials and if they do, so what! Where are the results? They have had the opportunity to coach some of the best talent on the island and what have they done with it. Some of them may have won the Caribbean Cup but what really is that. How about the Gold Cup? Oh, hold on they are going to start blaming corporate Jamaica for not pumping money behind them. Please these guys may have coaching certificates and what not, but they have nothing further. They need to give local football a break.
And Sir Maxwell, if our local premier league is no better than schoolboy level and you are such a top-notch coach why is your team languishing amongst the minnows? What does that say about your true abilities? Or is it that you are one man against the world? Please Sir, allow new talented coaches to emerge and breathe, don't stifle them with your godfather talk.
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20061130/sports/sports4.html
Bora is a good choice - Maxwell published: Thursday November 30, 2006
Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor
OUTSPOKEN COACH, Geoffrey Maxwell, believes the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) made a good decision in acquiring Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic to prepare the Reggae Boyz for the South Africa World Cup in 2010.
However, he thinks the Yugoslav-born coach is being paid too much and must be made to hand pick his own local coaching staff - all of whom should come from a senior group that includes himself - to eliminate the bias that is generally associated with the process.
Also, Maxwell, a former national coach, believes there are only four to five Jamaicans with real quality to match up against CONCACAF's top teams.
"I think Bora is a good choice," said Maxwell in a recent interview.
Pointing to a discussion he had with JFF president, Crenston Boxhill, on selecting a foreign coach, Maxwell says he noted Milutinovic but "I didn't expect this type of price. When you look at the whole picture, overall I think it's the right choice at this time, but it's very expensive and there's no guarantees there."
The 62-year-old Milutinovic, who will be paid US$1 million ($J65 million) annually under a four-year deal, has coached a record five teams to World Cups, including CONCACAF trio United States, Mexico and Costa Rica, and Maxwell rates this among factors why he fits the position.
"We have to be careful with our coaches being selected because they have to understand our culture. Bora has been around and he knows the culture of most of the Caribbean because he has been with Mexico, the United States and Costa Rica," Maxwell said.
"I think that if he's given the right tools, if he's given the proper local coaching personnel it can be done. It can't be the usual who-knows-who, it has to be the best minds that we have in the country and given time, he should be able to put together a good squad because I think we've a very good squad, even though 90 per cent of the squad will come from overseas. I'd also like to see him go around and take a look at players (and) at teams," he said.
Few top-quality players
"We have to live with the reality that we don't have more than four or five top-quality players that can play against Mexico, the United States and Costa Rica. I'm not talking about when we go into the early qualifying rounds where we can get rid of any team that we play.
"When we are hitting the Costa Rica's, the Guatemalas, the Mexicos, the United States, these teams possibly might be stronger than our team today in comparison to 1998 because in 1998 we had a very strong blend."
Jamaica, under Brazilian coach Rene Simoes, made their first and only appearance at the World Cup in France 1998, hence that comparison by Maxwell.
On the issue of national back-up coaching staff, Maxwell says only former past coaches Carl Brown, Wendell Downswell and he qualified for the potition. The three have been the only locals to have handled the national senior team since 1979 when Maxwell - in a period when there were hardly any competitions - did a relatively short stint as coach. Brown, who was Simoes' assistant during the France '98 programme, had the longest run and Downswell operated for about two years recently.
Local coaches
"If we look at the coaches with vast experience, outside of Carl Brown, Wendell Downswell and myself, we are possibly the most experienced local coaches," he noted. "I think Downswell, Carl Brown or myself as a unit will do as good a job as any foreign coach that can come here.
"It's not a matter of who's coaching now, it's not a matter of whose team is in the top three, top four in the premier league. That doesn't say you're among the best in the country.
"When you look at the overall picture, to think internationally, it's going to take more than the young premier league coaches coming up are capable of. It's a different, different ball game.
"I think he (Milutinovic) has to go with coaches who understand the international forum, I think he has to go with coaches who are willing to accept his ideology and he also is willing to listen to. "So what I'd like to see Bora do is ask local coaches who are interested to send in their résumés to him, let him look at these coaches, interview them and make his choice.
"I think most of our coaches are way behind in the tactical approach of their team playing but then again you are going to hear that their team is winning the premier league. But our premier league in the last three to five years has gone down to the lower level, it is as close to a good Manning Cup or daCosta Cup game so lets not fool ourselves."
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