Yorke: It’s a difficult job but we can achieve it

Though excited of being appointed the T&T national football coach, former national and Manchester United striker Dwight Yorke but accepted it is a difficult job in taking the country to its second FIFA World Cup in history.

“I’m quietly confident that we can get the job done, but I’m under no delusion that the job at hand is very challenging,” Yorke assured in a beIN Sports talk, a leading sports channel in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with channels in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

He was introduced to the public via a grand unveiling at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva, Trinidad, on Nov. 16.

Having spent most of his life away from the shores of T&T, Yorke said, “It has been a little bit challenging. I expect that when I decide to go into management, the pathway wouldn’t be as straightforward, as I thought it would be, so I am under no delusion that getting the job and doing good at it would have required me to build a platform so I can go forward. So when the opportunity came with Macarthurs FC in Australia, even though it was a short stint, I thought I had done a reasonably good job at the time, and from there on you think you’ve gained a little bit of experience.”

“I didn’t know the players personally, but I’ve got an assistant who has been in the system, and Russell Latapy who knows more about the local game, he is one of my assistants. I’ve been allowed to bring in two others, my strength and conditioning coach (Anthony Cera) as well as Neil Wood who has been at Manchester United, so I’ve been backed in that sense, which you need to be backed, to achieve your goals. So I’m quietly confident that we can get the job done, but I’m under no delusion that the job at hand isn’t very challenging,” Yorke explained.

The Soca Warriors are expected to nail down international friendly matches soon against Qatar and Saudi Arabia, ahead of the CONCACAF Gold Cup Preliminaries against Cuba in March.

In June, the Warriors will play against St. Kitts and Nevis in the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, their third encounter of the qualifiers, after a 2-2 tie with Grenada and a 7-1 drubbing of the Bahamas earlier this year.

“So I’ve got one job to do, which is to qualify for the World Cup, so that’s exciting and I’m looking forward to it. I’m getting involved and in my only session during the break recently, gave me a good look at the players and my ambition is to improve these players.”