There has been an­oth­er reshuf­fle on the staff of the se­nior na­tion­al foot­ball team ahead of the Con­ca­caf Na­tions League and the FI­FA World Cup Qual­i­fiers, which will con­tin­ue in Sep­tem­ber. 

Fol­low­ing the sack­ing of se­nior coach An­gus Eve and the hir­ing of his as­sis­tant Derek King as his re­place­ment on an in­terin lev­el, three more re­movals have tak­en place, ac­cord­ing to a source close to the de­vel­op­ment, with King on the job for about two weeks. 

Guardian Me­dia Sports has con­firmed the sack­ing of equip­ment man­ag­er An­ton Pierre, goal­keep­er coach Clay­ton Ince, and phys­io­ther­a­pist Ryan Rogers, all con­tract­ed to 2025, and worked along­side King un­der Eve.

King and his new staff will be prepar­ing for the Na­tions League and World Cup qual­i­fiers in the com­ing months. 

King, a for­mer na­tion­al youth coach, has brought in Walt Nor­eiga, the AC Port-of-Spain coach who has so far made a name for him­self in the two sea­sons of the T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League Tier 1 with a sec­ond-place fin­ish that was fol­lowed by the 2023–2024 ti­tle sea­son. 

Nor­eiga, who pub­licly said he pat­terns his style of foot­ball from Eng­lish Pre­mier League gi­ants Ar­se­nal, will be King’s as­sis­tant coach, while for­mer na­tion­al goal­keep­er and goal­keep­ing coach Ross Rus­sell has been picked as the re­place­ment for Ince, an­oth­er for­mer na­tion­al goal­keep­er and coach, and Joey Rooplal comes in as the re­place­ment for Rogers as the physio. 

How­ev­er, there has been no re­place­ment for Pierre, a for­mer na­tion­al de­fend­er, as he was not a con­tract­ed staff mem­ber, Guardian Me­dia Sports was in­formed.

When con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Ince said he was not in­formed by any­one that he was be­ing re­placed.

“No­body con­tact­ed me to say any­thing, so I am not aware that I was re­moved as the goal­keep­er coach,” Ince said. 

Pierre could not be con­tact­ed ei­ther, as calls to his cell­phone went unan­swered. 

Pres­i­dent of the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion, Kieron Ed­wards, and his vice pres­i­dent, Col­in Mur­ray, both said they were not aware of the changes in the se­nior na­tion­al team staff. 

How­ev­er, they said the new coach would have the au­thor­i­ty to pick his own staff, de­spite him be­ing a care­tak­er coach. 

The foot­ball as­so­ci­a­tion has be­gun a process to re­cruit a new head coach for Eve, who was fired on Ju­ly 31 de­spite hav­ing more than a year left on his con­tract, and it does not rule out King, who can boost his chances with vic­to­ries in the com­ing Con­ca­caf Na­tions League match­es next month and in Oc­to­ber. 

The So­ca War­riors are sched­uled to face Hon­duras in their open­ing game of the Na­tions League on Sep­tem­ber 6 and will then take on French Guiana four days lat­er, on Sep­tem­ber 10. There­after, they will face Cu­ba in a pair of match­es on Oc­to­ber 10 and Oc­to­ber 14. 

Ed­wards said it is a nor­mal pro­ce­dure for coach­es to se­lect their own staff, and it’s no dif­fer­ent here. “I do not know about the changes, but it could on­ly be if King men­tioned to the coach­es who he wants to work with on his staff, so I am cool with that,” the lo­cal foot­ball boss ex­plained. 

Mur­ray, too, said that while he was un­aware of the shake­up on the staff, he could see the new coach de­cid­ing who he want­ed to work with on his staff. “This is on­ly nor­mal,” Mur­ray said. 

Re­cent­ly, one ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber of the TTFA re­vealed that for­mer na­tion­al strik­er and now-coach Dwight Yorke and ex-Unit­ed States coach Gregg Berhal­ter were names that the Board of the T&TFA was ex­pect­ed to con­sid­er as part of its re­cruit­ment process.