Jamaica to Recruit Nine England-based Players

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/spor...uit_nine_England-based_players-176525991.html

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...20.ap.soc.recruiting.jamaicans.129/index.html

Just curious what peoples' thoughts are on this, how much it could potentially strengthen Jamaica, and how it would affect the Hex and the USA's chances.

Lol @ Horace thinking they have a remote chance at Sterling...who will likely be playing, if not starting for England in the next WC. Zero chance on Hoilett as well.

Ridiculous. No clue about the other players, but this likely doesn't pose much of a threat.

Agree on Sterling. They have no shot at him. They're over there anyways, so I guess it doesn't hurt to ask (re: beg). The others seem plausible though. Many would jump at a chance to play in the World Cup. Depending on their success, picking up even a few of those guys could give them a major boost.

You really think Hoilett doesn't think he'll be in the mix for England? I think with a good season he's got a real shot.

Some of the Reading guys perhaps...but the two guys who would really boost them will never play for them imo.

I think Hoilett is A BIT of a reach. I don't think it's likely they get him, but he's 23; young, but not a kid. To my knowledge, he hasn't really been involved in the England setup yet. He might get sick of waiting and decide to take his shot at a World Cup now. Unlikely, but slightly possible.

I really like Dyer as a player and think he's quality. Perch and Simpson are also quite good. I don't know nearly as much about the Reading guys, but if McAnuff is captain, he can't be a bad player. Beckford is good and would be useful to them, but wouldn't be too special. I don't know anything about Theo Robinson.

They should have a pretty high chance of landing the 2nd tier performers.

On their 1998 World Cup roster, they had half a dozen England based players plus a few more that spent some time there after the WC.

Hoilett is unlikely and Sterling will probably play for England in the WC'14 ... if they qualify, but if Jamaica can get Beckford, Dyer and a few others, they will be a much improved squad with a pretty reasonable chance of going to Brazil.

Yeah, that's essentially how I see it going. The guys who have better options (top performers who are dual nationals) will probably decline. The guys who don't have other options... why not? Might as well take your chance at a World Cup.

Danny Simpson and Jobi McAnuff are definite locks for Reggae Bwoyz.. they are very much good players. Simpson would probably be CONCACAF best RB... I don't even see how he wouldn't.

So is Junior afterall eligible for the English team? I mean I thought he still had like 1-2 years left till he's eligible. His father is Jamaican btw.. I think it can realistically be possible they pull Junior. He's shown interest as did his father. Never know, some sweet talk can go a long way.

Same with Raheem. His mother is very pro-Jamaican. She's the one who wanted him to play for Jamaica. I've read that Sterling wanted to meet with Horace and Tappa himself, it wasn't a beg or plea, they didn't approach him, it was the other way around. Ofcourse, he has English NT potential, but he's 17.. no way he's starting or playing in 2014 WC for England.. Walcott, Lennon, Young, and Oxlade... They have a lot of depth at his position, Zaha and Ince. It'll be interesting.. I'm not saying they'll win the Sterlng lottery, but I am sayin they're not completely out of the running just yet.

Anything is possible.

Jamaica would never have qualified for their one World Cup so far (1998) if they hadn't done this same thing back then.

It certainly adds a tiny bit of spice to the Hex but we just don't know if any of these guys will have an impact (positive or negative) until the games are played. There are a lot of variables such as team chemistry, tactics, getting acclimated to new surroundings etc.
This is not FIFA 13.

Three words : Bring it on.

First of all these players have all contacted the JFF about playing for Jamaica. Sterling is the only shaky factor. Hoilett will be on board if he convinces the coaching staff that he is committed to the cause. Tappa has done a wonderful job of getting Jamaica to play disciplined and organized; hence Jamaica's first win over the US senior team ever, with less talent than many of the teams that tried and failed before. With JA's new found discipline and organization the team is only 3 or 4 players short of challenging the US and Mexico for dominance in the region. If JA gets all 9 players it is only a foolish coach or an uninformed fan that wouldn't be worried.

Dominance? Let's not go overboard. This is the first time that Jamaica has even made the Hex in 12 years, and they had to rely on goal differential to get there.

So what does not making the hex in 12 years have to do with the price of butter?

I'd think Hoilett would pick Jamaica over Canada... I doubt Hoilett gets a shot with England. Walcott, Lennon, Sturridge, Adam Johnson, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sinclair are all probably ahead of him in the pecking order and all are under 26 years old.

I was going to say that this is nothing new. Of course they look for English players with Jamaican roots. They are always on the look-out. Exactly like every other country.

It means that this is uncharted territory for Jamaica's entire squad, and that they've only gotten here because they scored a mere two goals more than Guatemala.

Nothing wrong with that.

But you're going to have a hard time convincing anyone that the team is on the verge of dominating the region. At least around these parts anyway...

It's true that every other country will look to maximize their talent pool and would be foolish not to, but not every other country tries to bring in new players in bulk like this. If the U.S. tried to bring in 9 German-American players right before the Hex, heads would turn. I'm just curious why they didn't try to recruit some of these guys earlier to help get to the Hex. They barely qualified. I can understand waiting on guys like Hoilett so they can use the fact that they're further along than Canada as a selling point or Sterling because of his level of talent, but I don't get why they waited on most of those guys.

And that is the question many Jamaicans are asking; what took you so long and how will the new players be integrated in the team.

Some U.S. fans are concerned with how possibly bringing in Timothy Chandler would affect the U.S. team's chemistry and how the other players would feel about it because he hasn't done anything to help the team get to where it is now in qualifying. I can't imagine bringing in nine (realistically probably not quite that many, but still) new guys wouldn't present huge issues with the guys who were there to do the leg work.

You would be correct in that feelings will be hurt, but if the goal is to get to Brasil and you realize that your team lacks quality in certain areas then it is incumbent on management to fix those weaknesses. Jamaica will not make it to Brasil unless they strengthen the team; they can do this by bringing back a few discarded players (Fuller, King, McAnuff etc) and the addition of a few new faces (Simpson, Hoilett etc). Management will have to figure out how to manage the situation (they did in 98).

Who feelings boss?? you affi understand that, ballas like Kavin Bryan and Joel Senior were not suppose to be called-up in di first place.

The players who were on the field getting the team to the Hex in the first place that get bumped to the bench or off the roster.

Never said on the verge of dominating the region. There is a big difference between challenging for dominance and dominating. In the past JA would not present a real challenge to Mexico or the US. Shoot we couldn't even challenge Costa Rica or Panama, but with the injection of more quality while playing in the current system JA will be competitive with any team in CONCACAF.

That goes along with my team chemistry factor I listed.
We don't know how some of these players who put their blood , sweat and tears the last couple of years are going to react when they lose their jobs to some guys who just found instant patriotism in a Country they showed apathy towards for the majority of their careers.