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By Martyn Herman
LONDON, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Former Liverpool and England winger John Barnes is pessimistic about his chances of turning around Jamaica's World Cup qualifying hopes.
Barnes, who grew up in Jamaica before moving to England as an 11-year-old, was confirmed as the Caribbean island's new coach last week after Brazilian Rene Simoes was dismissed following a 2-0 defeat by Honduras.
For contractural reasons Barnes, 44, will not take up his post with the Reggae Boys until Nov. 1 and will miss the next two qualifiers against Mexico and Honduras.
"It's going to be difficult to qualify for the World Cup in 2010," Barnes, who once managed Celtic, told Liverpool's website (www.liverpoolfc.tv) on Friday.
"A job only becomes available when somebody loses their job, and someone only loses their job when the team is not doing well. The expectancy level is very, very high.
"I'm looking forward to trying to move Jamaica forward by getting them to play more competitively. Then come June, depending on how the relationship between myself and Jamaica goes, we can look to go further or go our separate ways."
Jamaica, who qualified for the 1998 World Cup finals, are bottom of their CONCACAF qualifying group after three matches and face an uphill take to reach the next stage.
"My focus really is on the Canada game, trying to win that match regardless of whether we've qualified for the last round of World Cup qualification or not," Barnes said.
"It's a tremendous honour to be managing my country. I've been trying to get back into football for many years."
Barnes was part of the last Liverpool team to win the English league title in 1990 when he was also named England's Footballer of the Year.
