TONY VANCE has the potential to be a mighty fine island football manager, of that I have no doubt.

Good coach, well respected by the players and familiar to them too.

His promotion is also good news for those behind Guernsey United who never wanted him to be disassociated from the island coaching team in the first place and were saddened when he was forced out along with Steve Ogier.

The GFA won’t come out and say Ogier and Vance were pushed, but they were and some of those who did the pushing – the clubs – might now be privately a little alarmed Vance has been brought back by Mark Le Tissier when his support for the Guernsey United project is clear.

Vance and, I am fairly certain, others with island coaching roles believe Guernsey United to be a good thing for the local game, although none is coming out publicly to say it, for fear of upsetting the clubs.

My support for the project is obvious and there is nothing to hide on that score. Perhaps that is why I find it all very disappointing that individuals won’t come clean on the ‘GU’ subject and talk openly and honestly about it. What is there to be embarrassed about?

Meanwhile, two months after they submitted a request, Guernsey United officials are still waiting for affiliation when normally such things go through on the nod. One must ask, why the delay?

The GFA officially say they are working on it, but Inside Track understands the clubs won’t have any of it and have put pressure on the board to stop United.

Being the good and amenable man he is, the GFA chairman Mark Le Tissier seems to be attempting the impossible job of being all things to all men.

But it all needs to be brought out into the open, the matter settled and everyone can then kick on with the uncertainty removed.

Even with affiliation Guernsey United’s ambition of playing on the national pyramid may never happen – the credit crunch being the one major hurdle – but the club has good and honest intentions and it cannot be right that it is being denied the opportunity to take its project forward.

WE CHUCKLED at their embarrassment, but Jersey’s demise in the recent Division Four World League cricket tournament and subsequent player fall-out is a warning shot across Guernsey sport’s bows.

Get over-professional, expect too much too quickly from pure amateurs and you risk a backlash, which is just what has happened to the sister isle’s team.

Dave Piesing and the Guernsey Cricket Board will have seen the warning signs in domestic cricket and ever since we joined the ICC I have heard the odd grumblings from good players who were happy to be the big fish in the small pool and don’t see the need for it.

But good players need fresh challenges, or anyone with a healthy degree of ambition should do.

At the same time there clearly comes a moment in an amateur career when expectations become too much and the sheer commitment becomes too burdensome.

And as usual it is a question of balance.

What dispirits me most is not to hear of players at the end of their career turning their back on the new opportunities, but it is the instances of talented youngsters unwilling to make the necessary commitments to make a top player.

It happens time and again in most sports and it is a constant reminder that not everyone wants to devote most of their young adult life to a sport.

Thankfully, there are still those who do, gems such as Heather Watson and Alice Loveridge, who know they can have fun along the way too.

But it’s a sad fact of sporting life that for every star like those two, there are nine with equal talent who could not be that bothered.

With better education, improved coaching and career guidance, it would be nice to think that the one in 10 ratio could be greatly improved in years to come.

Indeed, one of the doubts surrounding the Guernsey United project which this week returned to the spotlight with Tony Vance’s shock appointment as senior island coach, is that it will fail because insufficient quality players will want the commitment of playing away once a fortnight and committing to a full season instead of popping off on skiing holidays and mid-winter breaks in the sun.

But the truth is that if footballers and cricketers don’t take that extra step, they will forever be looking on jealously while other sports they once looked down their noses down at, will capture the big prizes and the exposure to the grandest stages.