MONTEGO BAY, St James — Former Reggae Boyz midfielder Hector Wright said he would have advised his former teammate Theodore Whitmore not to resign but to stay on and complete his job.

Wright, who partnered with Whitmore in the Jamaican midfield for several years, questioned the message that was being sent to Whitmore’s successor as national coach after his resignation yesterday following Jamaica’s loss to Honduras in their CONCACAF final round World Cup qualifier in Tegucigalpa Tuesday night.

“No one in their right mind would want to take up that job now seeing how Whitmore was treated and with four games to go,” Wright told the Jamaica Observer.

The former national player was one of several western-based football personalities who gave contrasting views on the news that Whitmore had stepped down after the team suffered four straight losses and were sitting at the bottom of the tables on just two points.

Wright, who returned to the island recently after a stint in the United States, and now plays for North Gully Ambassadors in the St James Football Association’s Sandals/ATL Senior League, said he did not think that Whitmore’s move was the “right one at this time with four games still to go”, and argued that some of the poor results the team achieved should not be blamed on the coach.

“Look at the goal we conceded against Mexico and the first one against the USA (both at home), how can you blame the coach for that? It is obvious (the goals) came from miscommunication between the goalkeeper and the defenders, nothing to do with the coach,” Wright said.

Former JFF vice-president George Evans said the parting of ways between Whitmore and the team did not come as too big a surprise. “Football is a result-oriented business and they live and die by results, “he noted while describing the move as “the usual knee-jerk reaction when things don’t go right”.

Evans said the move should not be seen “as being personal against Whitmore. This is not about Theodore Whitmore the person but the buck stops somewhere”. Whitmore, he said, was a “scapegoat, just like others before”.

Linnell McLean, chairman of the Western Confederation and a former KSAFA boss, said Whitmore “was being judged by the early results” where the Reggae Boyz beat the United States for the first time at the senior level and earned a point at the Azteca in Mexico.

McLean did not mince words when he said: “We are in serious problems with the qualifying and (Tuesday’s) loss effectively leaves us chasing the play-off spot as the first second and third places are all out of reach.”

The Trelawny FA boss said the team had “not played up to expectations” and wondered if “it was the coach or the players that should go”.

Gregory Daley, president of the St James FA, thinks “if Whitmore saw himself as a liability, then it was the right thing to do and step away from the programme”.

Everton Tomlinson, president of the Westmoreland FA, said while he had not been fully briefed on the situation, he was sure Whitmore “had the best interest of the nation at heart”. “This job is not an easy one and given the public pressure and lack of results, it is not easy,” but added “the programme must go on”.