Sacked!

WHILE NEIDER dos Santos was ready to come back to Montego Bay United Football Club (MBU) for preseason, the team had other plans and is currently in the process of announcing a replacement.

In a Gleaner interview with Dos Santos, he said the termination of his contract was not by mutual agreement.

“I really don’t know the reason; I was just informed by management of the club that they have other plans for the coaching staff and I am not included in that last Thursday. I, however, respected MBU’s decision,” said Dos Santos.

“First of all, MBU, they have the right to do what’s best for the club. Sincerely, I wish the best for MBU. It is a club and city that I love, so I am here with all support for them to do well,” he added.

The announcement of the contract termination was made on the team’s social media page with a brief farewell message yesterday.

“We want to advise that head coach Neider Dos Santos will not be returning to MBU for the 2024-2025 season. We are grateful for his dedication and contribution to the team over the years. We will announce his replacement shortly,” read the message.

Both chairman of MBU, Yoni Epstein, and Dr Germaine Spencer, president, declined to comment on the matter.

“No comment at the moment. We will update when we are ready to announce the new coach,” Epstein said.

“I choose not to comment. You will be updated in due course and will be briefed accordingly. We will be having a press conference,” said Spencer.

In April this year, Epstein said he was satisfied with the work of the coaching staff.

Dos Santos believes that while MBU did not make the Jamaica Premier League playoffs, the season was a good one.

“I think we had a good season taking into consideration the circumstances we had. The second round was very good and if I am not mistaken it was the second-best points among the 14 teams. Only Mount Pleasant was ahead of us. We didn’t qualify [to the playoffs] by a very close margin because of goal difference,” Dos Santos said.

Dos Santos has been the MBU coach on more than one occasion, beginning in 2011.

The Brazilian remained for two seasons in his first stint from 2011-2013 before returning for the second round of the 2022-2023 season.

He was retained for the 2023-24 season before the club called time on his contract.

MBU went on a 10-match unbeaten run in the second half of the season that included a stretch of five wins on the bounce.

In January, seven players joined MBU for the second round of the JPL.

Jamaican players Owayne ‘Turtle’ Gordon, Jourdain Fletcher, Courtney Allen and Daniel Reid were among the recruits.

Gordon, like Fletcher, was returning to MBU, while there were also internationals among the list of recruits.

MBU brought in Gregson president from St Lucia along with Josiah Trimmingham and Darnelll Hospedales from Trinidad and Tobago.

Now that the eggs are in the frying pan, Dos Santos isn’t making any massive plans.

“I am now enjoying my time with family and friends because it was a tough season. It was a lot of pressure to push in the second round, which we did. Now not thinking much about that, just relaxing a little bit. After a month I will think about what I am going to do,” the Brazilian said.