Though the resumption date for the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Stag Elite League is not known, Alpha “The Hammer” United are leaving no stones unturned, in their quest to regain their status as country’s top football club.
In recent times, Alpha has not been able to drop the “Hammer” with the power of their liking, as arch rivals Slingerz FC have the most dominant force in the country of late.
In the last season of the Elite League Alpha finished third in both halves of the league but managed to reach the final on both occasions
Slingerz won the Genesis leg of the league while Alpha prevailed in the Finale but the former won the champion of champion face off to take top club status in Guyana.
However, Head Coach Wayne Dover is confident that the club’s new recruits can return the club to its glory of local football, once they receive the necessary grooming.
“This year as we admit a lot of young players, we will be working diligently with the group and trying to organize them as a unit; we spend a lot of time organizing the group defensively” Dover disclosed.
He added, “The young recruits are good but one of the biggest challenges we face with the players is the tactical understanding so they can go out and execute”.
Alpha has strengthened their roster by adding 12 new signings with the likes of Adrian Adonis (Fruta Conquerors FC), Inceford Charles (Buxton United FC), Ryan Crandon (Milerock FC), Kevin Dundas (Buxton United FC), Raphael Edwards (Fruta Conquerors FC), Jahall Greaves (Fruta Conquerors FC), Leo-orin Lovell (Buxton United FC), Lloyd Matthews (Grove Hi-Tech FC), Pernell Schultz (Caledonia AIA), Keron Solomon (Georgetown Football Club), Jumane Somerset (Pele FC) and Romario Welcome (Georgetown Football Club).
The coach was further quizzed on whether he is satisfied with the work of the team to date, he responded saying, “we still are not satisfied where they are in terms of execution of work, we will be spending some more time on that; then we will move to some aspects in offensive, so far it is a working progress and we are trying our utmost best to get them where we want to be”.
Having being proverbial “top dogs” in local football over the years, Dover was asked on his position, whether the club has fallen below the expectations of being a top club”.
He firmly responded saying, “Expectations of who? We at Alpha know that we are entering into a transitional phase of our club, we have placed emphasis on that phase and we gave ourselves some targets”.
The Assistant National head coach added, “Both targets of the elite league we achieved, we set out to be in the first four and we did that”
The club has qualified, along with Slingerz FC for a place in the 2017 Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Club Championship.
With such a new team, Dover explained that the club will be giving the new signings a chance to impress in the first half of the new season so the officials the club could decide whether they need additional players.
“We have new group of recruits and we will give them the opportunity to see how they mesh, if they gave us a good season, we will go with these players and if we have holes to fill we will fill those gaps in the January transfer window” Dover stated.
In 2011, Alpha United gained recognition as being the first Guyanese football club to qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League, North America’s premier continental club tournament. Alpha United earned berth into the Champions League by finishing in third place in the subcontinental tournament, the CFU Club Championship which they earned a berth into through winning the National Super League.
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