Hayles welcomes return of Bryan, Gordon
League leaders Harbour View will lose three strikers in the January transfer window, but coach Donovan Hayles is not perturbed as in Kavin Bryan and Jomo Gordon, he has adequate replacements.
Harbour View, on top of the league with 39 points, have lost National Under-20 striker Alanzo Adlam, Reggae Boy invitee Denzil Watson and the promising Errol Stevens.
All three handed in transfer requests for mainly the lack of playing time.
Harbour View, with 24 goals from 20 games, are the league’s third highest scoring team and could be short on strikers.
“Well yes,” responded coach Hayles to the Observer’s queries.
“It is difficult, but we trust our young players and we have Jomo Gordon, who has been with us but had personal difficulties and he has solved some of it and Kavin Bryan, back home from Norway and is eligible to play,” Hayles continued.
“Jomo and Kavin are the oldsters and we have to get the younger players in the frame of mind and to apprentice them,” he added.
Adlam is back at Clarendon’s Sporting Central Academy, where he will link up with his former National Under-20 coach Donovan Duckie.
Last season Adlam was Sporting’s top scorer with eight goals, despite spending most of the season with the National Under-20 outfit in their failed bid for World Cup qualification.
Denzil Watson, who made his name with Boys’ Town before joining Harbour View last season and notched 10 goals as the club’s top scorer, is on his way to another Clarendon team, Humble Lions.
Meanwhile, Errol Stevens has just returned from Russian Premier League side FC Khimki after signing on August 20, 2009. He will join Tivoli Gardens.
His transfer request baffled head coach Hayles. “That is a surprise to me. We just had him on trials overseas, but he said he wanted playing time. Well, I don’t know if he is going to get much at Tivoli,” said Hayles.
But despite losing these players Hayles sees the return of Bryan as key to Harbour View’s title push.
Last year Kavin left for Norway and a lot of people didn’t realise it but that was one of our major problems. When he left we were just about the top and we struggled from there on. If we can keep him for the rest of the season, it will be miserable,” Hayles noted.
Last March Bryan signed a six-month loan deal with Norwegian club Notodden FC as replacement for fellow Jamaican Fabian Taylor, who had broken his leg.
Bryan scored 21 goals from 15 games in the Norway Reserve League before returning home in November.