Harbour View shake-up

AN END to the 2023-24 Jamaica Premier League season cannot come soon enough for five-time Jamaica Premier League (JPL) champions Harbour View Football Club.

With one game remaining in the season, ‘The Stars of the East’ are sitting in 12th place, having won only five of their 25 games played while losing 15 and drawing seven.

According to head coach Ludlow Bernard, the challenges his team encountered throughout the season were obvious.

“We know we have challenges in the goalkeeping and goal-scoring areas, and that is no secret. We would have used four goalkeepers throughout the course of the season, and now we’re left with the stone that the builder refused,” said a frank Bernard.

The experienced coach, who won the Premier League title with the club in 2022 and was a beaten semi-finalist just last year, said he was in the process of transitioning into a new role. This season, Bernard said, would be his last as head coach.

“I’ve always said, from last season, that I wanted this to be my last. I just figured that it is time for some younger coaches. In the past, I would have had younger coaches around me and pushing them, and this kind of operation needs some attention. I want to play a different role as they’re so many different things to be done surrounding the team, and I think I can be integral.

“The task at hand right now is to come up with the best solution where the coaching situation is concerned and have young, energetic coaches involved because we have to plan for long term” he explained.

Berrnard said while Harbour View only has Waterhouse left to play this season, collectively, they are already looking towards the 2024-25 season and will have talks around getting back to their best.

“We have to look towards next season from now, and that’s a discussion that will have to take place amongst ourselves, including the executive body. We will have to look at everything and then come up with the right decisions. We will be looking forward towards playing our next game, but also next season, which we’ve started already.”

orane.buchanan@gleanerjrm.com