Duckie’s obsession cost him MoBay dressing room – Powell
Published:Wednesday | March 15, 2023 | 1:34 AM
MONTEGO BAY United chairman Orville Powell has pointed at Donovan Duckie’s need to win as part of the reason the two have parted ways.
Duckie parted ways with the club via mutual consent said the chairman, who has also announced Brazilian, Neider Dos Santos, who coached the team briefly during the 2011-12 Jamaica Premier League (JPL) season, would be the man to take charge for the remainder of the campaign.
Duckie led the team in 18 games this season, winning four, drawing eight and losing six.
However, the much-travelled coach’s desire to ‘win at all cost’ was incompatible with the club’s new youth policy and Duckie himself recommended a new face for the dressing room to rekindle the passion in the team Powell disclosed.
“It is an understanding. Duckie and I came together and mutually decided that the team needed a change based on what is happening right now.
“Duckie has lost most of the youngsters, meaning they have just stopped coming to training because even if they come, they feel they will not get any game.
“It is not something that he does not see and we have not come together to understand. So nobody can say that I fired Duckie. It is something that we sat down and he said to me that the team needs another voice,” Powell revealed.
The MoBay boss said the former coach did some great work, pulling up a team that finished at the bottom of the table last term to midtable this season.
However, he said the veteran tactician’s obsession caused him to lose sight of the club’s youth policy and with discipline suffering as a result, they thought it best to end the relationship.
“Duckie is one of the best coaches in Jamaica. He brought us from scratch and did some great work. But he wants to win and he has a team that is basically not in a position to win right now.
“That is why things broke down. We want some younger players in and we want to build on younger players and we do not have the players to get that kind of result.
“But he has organised the team and has given us tremendous help to get us where we are right now and for me, he did good,” Powell said.
He noted that because Duckie relied on more experience players to get results, especially at this crucial stage of the season, the young players grew disheartened and most stopped training.
However, he hopes the hiring of Dos Santos will inspire the youngsters to recommit to the programme.
“The new coach is here already. Neider Dos Santos is back with us and will help us for the rest of the season
“That (motivate the team) is the intention. I don’t know if he will achieve it, but we sat and asked ourselves ‘what can we do to get the drive in these youngsters?’ And I know that if Duckie had seen something that he could have done, we would have been in a better position right now.”
Duckie, a former national assistant and under-23 coach, has coached in the Premier League with teams such as St George’s, Portmore, Humble Lion, Mount Pleasant and Waterhouse. This was also his second stint with Montego Bay.