Howard Walker, Staff Reporter

THE MANAGER of Arnett Gardens Football Club, Charlie Chaplin, has ordered - with immediate effect - the reinstatement of Kwame Richardson who was sacked on Monday, saying management was not aware of the coach's decision.

However, club president Patrick Roberts, quickly came to the defence of his coach, Glendon 'Admiral' Bailey, saying he was aware of what was happening, in fact, he signed the dismissal letters.

Richardson, along with six other players, Lacon Brissett, Conry Hall, David Bernard Jr., Oneil Marshall, Kierald McLeod and Colin Oldham, was given dismissal letters by coach Bailey upon arriving for training on Monday.

"This decision that them take ... they should have contacted me and the minister (Omar Davies)," Chaplin told The Gleaner yesterday.

"I am going to order him back in the team with immediate effect," he said.

"Although we are up for discipline and everything, if we bring in people, we bring them to get them (players) on a level.

"I am going to rule against that because it is not one factor making the team lose ... Kwame is an all leading goalscorer for us," said Chaplin, who used to coach a team called Border Patrol in the 1980s.

Roberts agrees

Roberts, responding to Chaplin's gesture, said he was totally in agreement with the coach, but nothing was cast in stone.

"It cannot be a situation where you say you are going to reinstate just like that. The coaches have all rights to make recommendations," said Roberts.

"I do not interfere with technical decisions like that. What I do want is results. If the coaches say these are the routes that I have to go, then I am going because when I am not getting results they (coaches) can't tell me nothing," said Roberts.

He continued: "Kwame and I are bona-fide friends and that shows you the route that I want. It's a situation where we and the coaches have to sit back and revisit the situation and see if there might be one or two we can put back in."

Richardson, 28, has been one of Arnett Gardens' top players since joining the team as a teenager after leading Charlie Smith to the triple crown in 1995.

"I was laughing at the time, but when I reached home it hit me. I don't know what came over them," said Richardson.

"I just suggested that we try a different formation and if it doesn't work, then we go back to the original one. I said that when I was on the bench during the Harbour View game to the players," he said.