Following a failed football season at the Waterhouse Football Club located in Drewsland, in St Andrew, an overhaul of the present management structure is under serious consideration, club Chairman Bruce Bicknell told the Jamaica Observer in an exclusive interview.

“This move is aimed at providing better results from the team on a consistent basis,” Bicknell said.

And the exodus has started with the resignation of Fitzroy Vidal as president. It is now widely rumoured that Donovan White, a long-standing member of the club, is earmarked to fill the post of president.

The proposed measures to be taken by Bicknell stem, no doubt, from Waterhouse’s dismal performance in the 2015/2016 Red Stripe Premier League football season, from which the team narrowly escaped relegation and only survived by an 11th-hour win in the final match of the season.

The dismal showing of the team that Bicknell adopted some 10 years ago distressed him to the point that he expressed the view that “a club with the stature of Waterhouse should not have been allowed to sink to that level to escape relegation from the premier football league in the country by winning their very last match of the season.

“Waterhouse FC is one of the best-loved clubs in top-level football in Jamaica,” Bicknell reiterated. “Waterhouse Football Club has the greatest following of all teams taking part in the country’s top football competitions since coming to the premier football league in the 1996/97 season.”

This was after they won the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA) League competition in the 1995/96 season.

Waterhouse missed promotion at the end of the 1994/1995 season, after they were beaten by Harbour View FC in the KSAFA final to gain promotion to the National Premier League.

Some 10 years ago, Tankweld Limited, through Bicknell, erected a double-decker football stand at a cost of some $25,000,000. The split-level structure houses players and changing rooms for teams on match days, on one side. Meanwhile, the other raised side provides office space and an entertainment section to refresh fans on the lower level. The upper level, which is covered, houses guests and an area to facilitate televising of matches and at the rear of the raised area, there is acceptable accommodation for referees.

The idea has been aired in some circles that it was a good thing for football that Waterhouse were not relegated from the Premier League, as clubs would have stood to lose valuable gate receipts from their home and away matches.

Waterhouse would not have been an exception, as Bicknell pointed out: “Despite being in the throes of relegation and seated at the very bottom of the points standing table of the RSPL, throughout the season, at every home game, the stadium was full. That just goes to show the loyalty and support of the team from the community and the influence the club has on the wider community as a whole.”

Bicknell is not just a supporter of being the main contributor to the club’s $1.5-million per month wage bill, but also, whenever possible, he follows the club around to watch them play and could be seen milling about with supporters and club officials alike after those matches.

Bicknell also revealed that by the level of support shown for Waterhouse Football Club, “it is an elite club, and there is going to be an overhaul in the management to ensure continuity. We are going to put much greater emphasis on our youth development programmes, something which we have not done to a great extent before.

“We are now going to invest a lot more time and money in this area of development at the club as we look forward to maintaining the highest standards at the club in future,” he promised.