SAINTE-LUCE, Martinique — The humiliating early exit of Trinidad and Tobago from the 2010 Digicel Caribbean Cup tournament may have placed the future of head coach Russell Latapy in doubt, but one thing is clear, he is willing to continue if given the opportunity.

Eight-time champions Trinidad and Tobago were sent packing from as early as their second game, following 0-2 and 0-1 losses to Cuba and Grenada, respectively, and their consolation victory over hosts Martinique on Tuesday night did nothing to hide the disappointment of the twin-isle republic, one of the footballing powers of the region.

It marked the second consecutive failure at the Caribbean level, which will see next summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup being played without the 2006 World Cup finalists for the second tournament in a row.

“This is a situation that is difficult not only for myself, but the team and the nation to take simply because this is the second time in a row that we haven’t qualified for the Gold Cup,” Latapy, known as the ‘Little Magician’ during his halcyon playing days, told the media shortly before departing the Piere & Vacances Hotel Wednesday morning.

“We consider ourselves, especially in the Caribbean, a footballing nation and if you don’t qualify for Gold Cup it is a serious situation, but again it is a situation of building or rebuilding, and in saying that there is not only the players or the coaches, but a nation on a whole that has to take responsibility,” he added.

Latapy has been in charge of the Trinidad and Tobago team for the past 18 months, but signed a two-year contract in March, and has been under tremendous pressure since, because of unflattering results, including a 1-1 draw away to Guyana, a 3-0 hammering by Panama and a goalless result with Belize.

Prior to the tournament, Trinidad sports minister Anil Roberts had lashed out at the former star player, declaring that he should be replaced as head coach if he failed to take the team to the 2010 Caribbean Cup final.

But despite those sentiments, ‘Latas’, as he is popularly called back home, would continue in the job if asked to.

“My belief is and has always been the players, and I think if I was asked to continue based on the players we have, as I’ve started a programme that I would like to continue, and if given that opportunity, then I would,” he declared.

“Again it is a difficult situation and football is a game of opinions, and it is opinions that count.”

Latapy might find support from the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) technical director Lincoln Phillips, who is reported to have called for calm, warning against any “knee-jerk decision” to the team’s failure.

“In my mind the reality is that we had a really young team here, and the reason we had a young team is that we are thinking of building for the future. I thought that our first game against Cuba we never really showed what we can do, but in the other two games I thought that we played fairly well and we had enough opportunities to score goals and win games and showed what we can really do, but the reality of football, and it is a harsh reality, is that if you don’t score goals, defend properly, then you struggle and that’s what happened to us in this tournament,” Latapy said.

“When I look back at things before we prepared for the group stages in Trinidad, we had seven days together as a team, and it is a lot in this type of competition. We prepared properly, we played games and we worked out all our problems. I think that after this stage and coming into this competition there was an international date on the 17th (November) and Trinidad was one of the teams that never had a game on this particular date and I think that made a difference… we had four training sessions really before we came to this competition and if you look at Cuba, I think they played on the 13th, the 15th and the 17th, and then they never went back to Cuba, they came straight here on the 20th, and I think that a team that stays together and plays together is a team that wins together and that’s the reality of the game.”

The former midfield superstar noted that his group was one of the youngest, with four or five players being 19 years old, and he believes that this core group will be the nucleus of the Trinidad and Tobago team going forward, regardless of who is the coach of the team.

Outside of Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica are four-time winners, with Martinique and Haiti each winning once.