Lawrence: Yorke should have been given more time
2026-03-20 - 19:45
Former Trinidad and Tobago football coach and national player, Dennis ‘Tallest’ Lawrence is in disagreement with the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association’s (TTFA) decision not to renew the contract of former head coach Dwight Yorke. Lawrence, who became an instant football legend in 2005 when he scored the winning goal for T&T against Bahrain to send them to their first and only FIFA World Cup one year later, contended that Yorke had not been given enough time at the helm. Speaking during an interview on Isports on i95.5 FM on Thursday, the 51-year-old assistant head coach of Championship side West Bromwich Albion, said continuity was importance to any coach’s success. Yorke was appointed T&T head coach in November 2024 and given a mandate by the TTFA to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. However, he failed to do so and the two parties eventually parted ways last month after salary negotiations broke down. “In my opinion, coaches need time, especially in a job like the T&T job. I did not follow the whole process of what Dwight did etcetera, I’m speaking about all coaches on a whole and that would include Dwight. “What I do know is that if you’re bringing in a coach that doesn’t have the wealth of experience like Dwight... and you’ve just used a campaign to give him experience, what is the harm in taking that experience that he’s just gained and extending it and hopefully then thinking that for the next campaign he would be in a better position,” Lawrence said. “We’ve never tried things like that. We’ve always brought in a hit man to qualify for a campaign...and if you continue to keep doing it that way you may hit one again in the next 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, who knows, but that does not guarantee development and continuity.” Lawrence maintained that long-term planning should always trump qualifying for a particular tournament. “We can continuously keep going and bringing in a coach closer to a tournament to try and achieve a short-term goal and then when it doesn’t happen people are saying that the T&T team isn’t good. But for me that is not the correct way to do it. “If you want to do it correctly, then use the resources you have on the island, improve and grow the development, and it might be integrated with some foreign coaches, because obviously foreign coaches bring a different skillset,” Lawrence said. However, he pointed out that several foreign coaches hired by the TTFA to deliver in big tournaments had also failed to deliver. CMC