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Back at the 2007 Asian Cup, Graham Arnold, then the interim Socceroos coach, gave a post match interview after a game in Bangkok, Thailand, which nailed the lid shut on any aspirations he might have had for a move to permanent status as the Socceroos’ head coach.
On Monday in London, Lucas Neill committed the same career suicide with a similar interview.
I’ll assume most people reading this would have seen and heard what the Australian captain said in London on the eve of the Socceroos clash with Canada.
It was an interview borne out of a so-called “siege mentality”, similar to what Arnold was no doubt experiencing in Thailand six years ago.
What was most surprising about the interview was that Neill gave it in the first place.
Putting aside his recent on-field form, Lucas Neill has conducted himself off the field impeccably as the captain of our national team.
He is well-spoken, considered in his response to questions, diplomatic to a fault, and a foil for his team mates if they were under pressure.
I’ve been an admirer of his for many years.
On the field, the cracks and doubts have started to appear with the unforgiving march of time, but as recently as our last qualifying campaign, Neill still offered enough to make his central defensive position relatively secure.
But today’s interview has exposed Neill as a man unravelling.
It has almost instantly created a chasm between the “old guys” (his words) and the young guys.
If it was supposed to be a motivational talk to try and inspire the younger brigade, I fear it will fail spectacularly.
Neill himself reiterated the struggles he faced to scrap and fight his way into the Socceroos picture. He surely cannot believe that the so-called “younger guys” have it any easier.
Do Mustafa Amini, Tom Rogic, Mat Ryan or Tommy Oar, just to name a few, have some kind of easy ride to the famous gold shirt?
Are they doing it easy? No, I don’t think so.
They are treading the same path as Neill, working their butts off to try and establish themselves at overseas clubs, trying to break into the first team and from there the Socceroos.
I doubt any one of them feel they have some kind of entitlement to a Socceroos shirt. yet that is EXACTLY the attitude Neill himself conveyed in his interview – one of entitlement.
With a new Socceroos boss to be named soon, and it looking more likely to be a present A-League coach, there will surely be a desire to blood youngsters in the little time left between now and Brazil.
Just how will those players feel having their desire, their dreams of playing for the Socceroos, questioned by their captain?
Especially one whose recent form as the on-field leader of the country’s football team have yielded awful thrashings.
If ever there was a time to keep a low profile and try to convince an increasingly dubious football family with on-field leadership in the upcoming game against Canada, this was it.
Neill’s interview would make a perfect case study in what not to say in the circumstances he and the Socceroos find themselves in.
And to call into question comments made by Mark Bosnich (who said Neill should have retired after the qualifying campaign) on the basis of assuming Bosnich is a friend is a staggeringly bad look.
If your friends can’t tell you, who can?
The last thing Neill needs to do is be drawn into personal vendettas – he even suggested that himself, before plunging in and doing exactly that.
It took Graham Arnold six years and a lot of hard work to re-establish himself as a coach worthy of consideration for the country’s top job.
Unfortunately, Lucas Neill doesn’t have that long.
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