North Village stalwart Kentoine Jennings is reconsidering his decision to hang up his boots.

Plagued by injury early last season, Jennings went on to cap a memorable 2001/02 campaign, one in which Village landed both the Premier Division League and FA Cup titles, narrowly missing out on the coveted, but rarely achieved, Triple Crown haul after PHC ended their Friendship Trophy hopes in the final.

Jennings then announced his retirement upon receiving the Most Valuable Player Of the Year award at the Bermuda Football Association's post-season awards ceremony.

Since then, however, the player seems to have had a change of heart and is currently contemplating a speedy return to local soccer - however, not with Village but with Southampton Rangers instead.

This intended move is now said to have set off the alarm bells at Bernard Park and sparked a tug-of-war between the two clubs over the gifted player.

"As far as I'm concerned, Kentoine is still very much a part of our programme at North Village Community Club," said club president Sherwin Dill yesterday.

"He left with our junior team today (Monday) to go to Harrisburg (Heat) and so officially, he hasn't been released yet.

"There are no papers signed to release him and we understand that there's been a proposal made by Rangers and so we've presented him with a counter proposal.

"Presently he still is coach of our Under-15 team, but I have had meetings with Kentoine to discuss his future at Village and basically we are trying to secure it.

"There are very delicate negotiations going on at the moment, and he's reviewed our proposal and final decisions will be made when he returns.

"Truthfully speaking, Kentoine is held in high regards at Village and we would certainly like to secure his future with the club.

"It's not a major issue at the moment but we would just like to find out what his final position is going to be."

When contacted yesterday, Rangers president Aldwyn Savery, stated: "It's really up to him.

"We had invited Kentoine up here to lead our programme because we do believe that he would be a plus for us in terms of trying to rebuild a footballing force in the Southampton community."

Savery said that while understanding it was a sensitive issue for Village, Southampton "still hope that Mr. Jennings would keep his promise to come up here because we are really looking forward to having him bring his knowledge and his experience onboard."