MBU looking at a modern football approach, says Spencer

President of Montego Bay United (MBU), Dr Germaine Spencer, says former coach Neider dos Dantos is a great coach and that their decision to part ways with the Brazilian was more about business than results. Spencer said under the club’s new management, they want to chart a course of modern football and new Argentine coach Rodolfo Zapata is precisely what they are looking for.

“It’s about the club and the vision and where we were taking the team. It was not an issue where we had any bad blood or disagreement (with Dos Santos).

“It is just that we are data driven, so we were looking for data analysis, scientific data on how to manage players before the season, in season and out of season.

“So we are looking at a modern day football approach and we believe that the new coach (Zapata) and what he has put to us, ticks those boxes,” he said.

Spencer said that despite the impact Dos Santos had on the field of play last season, where the team had a slow start but recovered and went on a 10-match unbeaten run to close out the season, while just just missing the playoffs on goal difference.

However, he pointed that the Brazilian was more a throwback to the coaches of former years.

“Dos Santos is a great coach, no two ways about that. But he is an old school, a hard nose coach. We just wanted an AI type, modern day coach, that was the way for us.

“If it was about results, we would have definitely have Dos Santos back with us. But it was a matter of how we wanted to see the club in a next 10 years,” Spencer said.

He revealed that a number of high-profile coaches from around the world, including a former Manchester United player, had applied for the post. But it was Zapata who presented the complete package in terms of what the club was looking for, especially his ability to transition young players into his senior teams.

“We went through an extensive interview process. We reviewed about 10 coaches from all over the world, from England mainly, Ireland, USA, Sweden and local coaches.

“We didn’t even make a lot of advertisement for coaches. But there were agents all over the world feeding us with coaches, and we even had an ex-Manchester United player, which surprised us as owners and directors, the pull that MBU have.

“We want to know how other international clubs monitor players so they can sell them. So whatever metrics or information they use that can be shared from these counterparts to get players out, we want it.

“So what Zapata brought to the table was his ability to move youths from the academy to a senior team (and this) was the key factor, because at the end of the day it’s about business and we need to sell players to be viable and we need to get youths into the senior team as fast as possible,” said Spencer.

Source: The Star