Craig Butler lashes out at yet another former protege
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Head of Phoenix Academy Craig Butler has lashed out once again after one of his former players Romarion Thomas signed to play for Jamaica Premier League champions Cavalier SC.
In a post on the social media site Instagram, Butler said he was fed up and warned ominously “Karma is coming.”
Thomas, the former Mona High player who was part of the Vere United team last year when they were part of the Phoenix organisation, is the latest former Butler protege to leave the organisation and third to join Cavalier SC this season.
Vere United which was incorporated under the Phoenix umbrella last season, were relegated from the Jamaica Premier League to the JFF Championships and since then, Butler has switched his focus to another Clarendon club, Chapelton Maroons, who have won their first two games played so far.
“I have had enough I took you into Phoenix as a boy from YMCA, put you in a good school, trained you, developed you, invested daily in you and took care of you, now you want to spread lie. I will not accept this one second longer,” the post read, seemingly making reference to Thomas.
Describing the 20-year-old as “behaving like a spoiled brat” and inferring the player acted unprofessionally, Butler wrote “I have my receipts and facts to back up. Football is a business like any other business, you show up for work you get paid, you don’t go to work you don’t get paid. You chose not to show up and to behave like a spoiled brat.”
The post, which had attracted 267 likes in the first hour it was posted, said neither Thomas, Denzell McKenzie or Michael Forbes, all former Mona High players who had played for Vere United, “You nor anyone else forced a transfer. I could have let you mckenzie forbes and company rott at Vere. I chose to release you and to cut the cancer out of my environment so we can grow.”
He made reference to a letter he claimed to have written to the owner of Vere United stating “Now that the election is over I can reveal my position to him. I am disgusted by your behaviour and I chose to let you go . Remember that every time you say all those lies about us. Karma is coming.”
-Paul A Reid
