Forde hits back at critics after Bonofiglio appointment

Guyana’s senior men’s national football team, the Golden Jaguars, will be under new leadership for their next outing following a recent change of guard.
Back in May, Head Coach Thomas Dooley, who served in the post for under a year, announced his resignation, taking up an opportunity in Bangladesh.
As such, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) was on the hunt for a new gaffer, and all roads led to Marco Bonofiglio.
Quizzed about the recent appointment, GFF President Wayne Forde shared how the Federation arrived at Bonofiglio as the perfect candidate.
The GFF President told Guyana Times Sport exclusively, “As we would’ve demonstrated, many, many times in the past, the GFF always go out, when we have to retain the services of a Head Coach and do a comprehensive recruitment process. We were not completely prepared, even though I got some amount of notice Coach Dooley was going to depart; it still placed us in a little bit of an awkward position, to go and advertise and recruit and all that, given that the September window is upon us.
“So, we took a decision to look internally and we felt that, given his track record, given what he has done, what we know of him behind the scenes, it was the best thing to do, under the circumstances, “
“I have a lot of confidence and faith in Coach Marco and we have a clear goal of what we’re hoping to achieve in this edition of the CONCACAF Nations League and I have no doubt that he’ll be able to achieve those goals and objectives for us,” Forde expressed.

The GFF boss went on to detail Bonofiglio’s familiarity with the Guyanese framework.
“Marco has been one of the most dedicated professionals in the senior national team programme, Forde opined, “Of course, our first engagement with him started with the U17, and there’s no doubt, we all saw what he did with that and ever since that engagement, he has been assistant to the Head Coaches.”
He added, “He was the assistant under Coach Dover and then he was the assistant under Coach Dooley and he’s been working in the programme, behind the scenes.”
Responding to concerns about Bonofiglio’s pedigree at the senior level, having mostly worked in the youth setup, Forde was unfazed by those criticisms.
He retorted, “When you look at successful managers, one of the things that they bring, that is separate and apart from other managers that may not be as successful as they are, is man management and relationship. Coach Marco enjoys an exceptional relationship with the players, both domestic and international players, and there’s a lot of trust and commitment in that relationship.
“So, I believe the skills and the knowledge and the experience that he has and having the dressing room, the way in which he commands that space, seeing him work with those guys, I believe that is a perfect formula for results.
“We always welcome the fans’ comments whether it’s negative or positive, they have a right. This team doesn’t belong to the GFF, it belongs to the nation. We’re just honoured to have the privilege to manage it at this moment and it falls upon us to make certain decisions, some may agree, some may not agree and that’s okay, that is the business of football,” the GFF boss concluded.
The Golden Jaguars are expected to be back in action in September for the CONCACAF Nations’ League.