Jamaica’s classrooms are facing an unsettling challenge, with one in every 10 high-school students reporting that they have gone to school drunk, while a similar proportion say they have turned up under the influence of marijuana or other drugs
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This is some interesting information coming from Craig here, and of course you have to take it with a grain of salt. Nevertheless though, I am concerned about Whisper as of right now
A Loud 'Whisper'
I do not know Dujuan Richards. I have never met him. I have never sat in a room with him, never kicked a ball with him. I have seen him play footballer live and on TV and he is an amazing football talent, perhaps the best we have had in a long time. So this is not about defending a friend. This is about us, Jamaicans.
A 20 year old Jamaican boy came out of Port Royal and Kingston College, scored over 30 goals in a Manning Cup season, made his senior debut for Jamaica at 17, and became the youngest Gold Cup goalscorer we have ever had. Chelsea signed him. Then a serious knee injury took a big chunk of his development. He got a few minutes at Leicester. Now he is going to AFC Wimbledon on loan to play football. That is the story. Not a fall from grace. A young man still trying to find regular senior minutes.
And yet as soon as the announcement video dropped, the same old soundtrack started. Him shame. Him nuh look happy. Him think him better than him is. Career rocky. Boy look vex. We took a reserved face in a stadium shoot and turned it into a character assassination.
Look in the mirror and ask yourself why. Because this is not new. We did versions of this with Leon Bailey for years. Lift him when he scores, bury him when he has a quiet night or a quiet camp. We do it with young players the minute the path is not straight up. Injury, loan, League One, a face that is not smiling wide enough for Instagram. Suddenly the same people who posted “this is our future” are in the comments trying to humble a youth they have never coached, never paid, and never had to walk that road with.
Ask yourself what you are actually doing. Are you analysing the player, or are you discharging something else? The World Cup miss still sits heavy. High hopes sit heavy. Seeing a Jamaican name at Chelsea and then seeing him at Wimbledon feels like a comedown, so we punish the boy for not arriving on our timetable. That is not standards. That is disappointment looking for a target.
He is 20. Plenty of players who later made it spent years on loan, in League One, in the Championship, getting minutes, getting stronger, getting used to men’s football. A loan is not a funeral. A serious face in a promo is not proof of arrogance. Quiet is not the same thing as ungrateful.
I want him to do well. We should all want him to do well. Not because he is perfect. Because when one of ours finds his feet, it opens the door a little wider for the next KC boy, the next Phoenix All Stars boy, the next youth who thinks Europe is only a rumour. When the tide rises, all the ships sail.
If you have real football criticism, say it like an adult. Minutes, movement, finishing, work rate, that is fair. Mocking a 20 year old’s face because he did not perform joy on command is cheap. It costs you nothing and it can cost him confidence at the exact moment he needs to go and earn a living in a new dressing room.
Leave the youth. Let him work. If he scores, celebrate. If he struggles, let him fight through it without a whole country sitting in the comments waiting to say we told you so. We keep saying we want Jamaican players to succeed. Then act like it.