Bermuda is a very different place from the Island I left almost 20 years ago to pursue a career in professional football and as I discussed last week, it’s taken me some time to adjust to life back on the rock.

Living and playing in UK for most of the year as I was, my visits back home were almost always in the summer and consequently I had very little opportunity to watch a lot local football — if any.

So one of the big things I was looking forward to when I decided to come home was to be able to spend some of my Sunday afternoons at places like Wellington Oval, Devonshire Rec. and Bernard Park, watching some of the top teams in action and comparing the standard now to what it was when I was learning my trade at North Village in the early 1980s.

I have to admit that I have been shocked by what I have seen.

While virtually every team in my time had at least half a dozen very decent players, now in many cases the quality is spread so thin that some teams have only one or maybe two players that I would consider of genuine quality.

In my eyes, the general standard of local club players in terms of their technique, their passing ability and their fitness is nowhere near what it once was and consequently the overall standard is not what I was expecting.

Now I’m not saying that there isn’t talent out there. There almost certainly is. In my opinion though, young players today are simply not as motivated as my generation were in terms of improving themselves as footballers.

They want the glory and the acclaim, but they are not prepared to do what is necessary to make the most of their potential. I know there will always be exceptions to the rule, and I know there are some out there who are dedicated, focused and want to be the best they can be. But in general terms I’ve been disappointed by what I’ve seen.

You can make all the excuses you like about the lack of first-class training facilities, or that the quality of pitches in Bermuda is extremely poor, or the clubs themselves are much more run-down than they used to be.

All of this is true to a certain extent, but in all honesty it was much the same when I was playing football here and rather than moan and groan we just got on with it.

In many cases it is a case of attitude rather than talent or facilities which is holding Bermuda football back, and this will have to change if we are going to get anywhere.

Saying that though, last week’s announcement that the Government is going to invest $15 million in local football over five years was absolutely terrific news and I’d like to congratulate the Bermuda Football Association for the excellent plan they put together and the Government themselves for buying in — literally — to the future of the sport on this Island.

Significant investment cannot come soon enough and I’m extremely excited about the future. Used properly, as I’m sure it will be, this money should do wonders — the benefits of which we should start to see maybe five to ten years from now.

I believe one of the ways in which this money should be spent is on the hiring of both an experienced foreign national team coach and technical director to take the sport forward.

While I’m well aware there are plenty of talented coaches on the Island, if we are truly serious about raising the bar in Bermuda, we must draw heavily on international expertise.

Up until now, we’ve rarely had the money to afford this luxury, but now we do it would be a terrible shame not to look for highly-qualified overseas candidates with a proven track record of success.

This money and the BFA’s strategic plan represents an absolutely crucial period for local football, an opportunity that must be grabbed with both hands.

But we must all be on the same page and work together, and that includes the players, the coaches and the fans if we are going to ensure that the decline in local football that I have witnessed with my very own eyes is to be permanently reversed.