Former T&T captain and striker Kenwyne Jones has given his blessings and vote of confidence to newly-elected T&T Football Association (TTFA) president William Wallace.
Jones, now retired after 82 international appearances in which he scored 23 goals for the Soca Warriors, made a brief stop at the TTFA head office on Thursday to see Wallace, a TTFA release said yesterday.
“There is hope because what you are going to get from him are integrity, honesty and action. So for him, I can speak or put my trust in him that he would be who I know him to be. He is in a situation where he will have other people to answer to, other people’s ideas to take on board, those who supported him, whatever the case is, and they will have to come up with the best plan for T&T football,” Jones reportedly told those who were at the TTFA office of what he expected from Wallace in future.
“As a man of experience administratively, he has his know-how and of course there are things he is going to learn because he is now in a higher position that is going to involve him a little bit deeper in administration in CONCACAF, CFU, FIFA and he is going to have stuff that he will learn along the way.
“But at the same time, I believe he will bring a sort of calming, cohesive, functional administrative framework to the federation and I am happy for that because it is something we have needed for quite a long time.”
The former Sunderland and Stoke City forward touched on his experience playing under Wallace as a team manager, when he served the team that went on to qualify for two consecutive CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals in 2013 and 2015 and finished as runner up in two Caribbean Cups.
“I think it was fantastic between the technical staff and players, as they had a great understanding and bond moving forward,” Jones said.
“For the entire team, and that includes staff, I think we were going through the same issues. It wasn’t a situation of the coach and members of the technical team and the other staff members being taken care of and the players not being taken care of, or the players being taken care of and the technical team not being taken care of.
“We were all in the same boat, having the same frustrations, things not happening for us. What we had in that time in William Wallace as a manager, was that he fought for everything. Of course, he would have a complaint, or players, or technical staff would have a complaint concerning different things, but he would listen and definitely put his best foot forward in trying to achieve, if not the exact thing, as close as possible to it.”
Wallace defeated then-incumbent TTFA president David John-Williams during last Sunday’s TTFA AGM by a vote of 26-20.