Montesso's mad ambitions

By Orville Higgins

I was among those who happened to be very surprised when Alfredo Montesso resigned as technical director of Jamaica's football programme.

Montesso was in the job for only a few months and opted to quit following the hiring of Winfried Schafer as head coach of the men's senior national team. Even stranger than Montesso's sudden resignation was his reason for leaving: "One thing that I could not agree to is that I am the technical director, but have a coach that does not report to me."

Really now, Mr Montesso? "I could not accept that, and this is what I told the president," he said.

With all due respect, Mr Montesso, I cannot understand your line of reasoning. For what it's worth, Winfried Schafer comes with a far more impressive coaching résumé than Mr Montesso, possibly more than Mr Montesso ever will! It doesn't make Mr Schafer the biggest coaching guru around, but surely it must defy reason to be 'reporting to' somebody who has much greater qualifications than you.

What does reporting to the technical director mean? What exactly did Mr Montesso want Mr Schafer to do? Come to him and outline his plans? Tell him who he plans to select and what formation he plans to use? Does reporting to the technical director mean that Montesso wanted to be Mr Schafer's boss, who can agree with or shelve his plans and strategies as he sees fit?

That, of course, would be nonsense, because, let me repeat, Mr Schafer comes with greater coaching pedigree than Montesso.

This technical director business is a new terminology to most of us, something that crept into football's jargon round about the time when René Simoes was in the saddle. Simoes was the technical director and Carl Brown was said to be the head coach.

Montesso no Simoes

But we all know that Simoes was the man who 'run t'ings' at the national level. Carl Brown didn't 'report to' Simoes about the national team in the real sense of the word. You report to a man when you have a duty as the head man, but that man sets policies and frameworks within which you must operate.

Carl wasn't so much reporting to Simoes as much as he was dictated to by him. Huge difference. Carl Brown's head coach title was, therefore, misleading.

Montesso was here for much of those times and must have wanted the same privileges that Simoes had with the 'boasy' title of technical director.

I have news for you, Montesso. There is no way that you can have the aura and clout that Simoes had in those heady days leading up to the '98 World Cup. Montesso wants the same privileges that came with Simoes' title without being the man Simoes was. Where most of us (probably including Carl) were overawed by Simoes, the technical director, the truth is that most of us see Montesso as small fry in the coaching game.

The way I see it, Montesso should be happy that he was given the job of technical director to begin with, and should be very grateful. He was Theodore Whitmore's assistant, and between the two of them, they guided Jamaica to absolute last place in the current CONCACAF World Cup standings.

Under the partnership with Whitmore, the team's performance continued to get worse. Whitmore then jumped, or was pushed (doesn't matter), and Mr Montesso should have been counting his lucky stars that he wasn't sent on a plane to Brazil at the same time!

When he was promoted to the technical director post, he should have been jumping and down in glee! Instead, he clearly bought into the concept that he was 'the' man, and now wanted to be treated accordingly. Mr Montesso seems to be severely suffering from a false sense of his own importance.

Mr Montesso says he was disappointed at not being appointed head coach, which may be the real reason why he is upset. But on what basis, Mr Montesso? Ambition is nice, but what did Mr Montesso do that made him a compelling choice for the job as head coach? Again, even his appointment as deputy is questionable. He might be a good organiser and a capable nuts-and-bolts man, but where are his pressing coaching credentials?

Montesso wanted to be the head cook and bottle washer when he should have been happy with just being in the kitchen.

Orville Higgins is a KLAS sports journalist and talk-show host. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.