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Australia’s national football coach Ange Postecoglou is reportedly set to walk away from his position in November, even if the Socceroos do successfully qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The Herald Sun has reported that Postecoglou has made the decision to vacate his position at the end of Australia’s World Cup qualification campaign regardless of which way the result goes, and that he would have already left the job if Australia had successfully gained automatic qualification last month.
Postecoglou reportedly has made the decision at least in part due to the perception that he is being undermined in his position by repeated criticism.
The Socceroos’ frustrating and generally poor performances throughout their World Cup qualification campaign, as evident as ever in a Trichotillomania-enducing effort on Tuesday night, would no doubt play a role in the decision as well.
After the match, Postecoglou said:
“It just astounds me that people keep thinking this is supposed to be easy.
“You saw what it meant to the opposition tonight. It’s going to mean the same for the other opposition.
“I just don’t get it when people think it’s supposed to be some… show me the evidence that we’ve cruised through to a World Cup.
“Even the first year in Asia we got through strong under Pim Verbeek, fantastic performance but we weren’t smashing teams. Last time we got through in the last game.
“There is no evidence to say that anyone in this confederation is easy… if people think we go into games thinking we’re going to smash the opposition here because we’re that far superior, they haven’t been watching.”
(AAP Image/Lukas Coch)
Postecoglou had previously indicated that he intended to end his time as Socceroos coach after the 2018 FIFA World Cup, but it appears that he has now brought the timing of his decision forward.
If it does come to pass that Australia qualify and Postcoglou moves on, it will leave Australia in the unusual position of needing to find a new national football coach on the eve of the World Cup.
There is not yet any formal statement from Postecoglou confirming his plans to quit or even stating it as a possibility, but he has recently made comments defending his philosophy against criticisms of Australia’s performance and dismissing them as ‘white noise’.
“There are always different schools of thought and debates. I’d be absolutely astounded if anyone is surprised at what I’m doing or what I’m saying because I’ve been coaching for 20 years,” he said.
“Maybe some people are questioning whether they should’ve, or they should’ve said that I was the right man for the job four years ago.
“You’ve got to be careful what you wish for. Maybe some people just kind of went along that I was the flavor of the month and now probably think I wasn’t the right person.
“It’s who I am, it’s how I coach, it’s been very successful for me and continues to be successful and it will be successful for me.
“The rest of it just becomes noise, white noise. And again, it’s nothing new.”