Socceroos head coach Graham Arnold has today rebuked rumours he was considering ditching the national side for a gig with Scottish Premier League side Hibernian.
In a brief media release issued by the FFA, Arnold dismissed whispers of his supposedly imminent shock departure, while reinforcing his strong commitment to both the Socceroos and the Australian U23 side.
“I am surprised to learn of the speculation,” Arnold said. “We have just started a great four-year journey with the Socceroos and the Australian U23 National Team.”
“I saw a lot of growth in our team and many individuals at the AFC Asian Cup and while we were disappointed not to go further in the competition I am extremely proud of our players and staff.
“I will be back in Australia soon and my full focus will be on the upcoming AFC U23 Championship qualifiers in Cambodia in March, and following that our 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign and the AFC U23 Championship to be held in Thailand next January,” he added.
Arnold’s second stint as Australian national coach got off to a rocky start, with their Asian Cup title defence ending in the quarter-finals with a shock 1-0 loss to the UAE.
The Socceroos only finished second in their group, failing to score in three of the five matches they played at the tournament.
Arnold’s first stint as Socceroos coach was a short one. He was always going to have a tough time following in Guus Hiddink’s footsteps, but a disappointing quarter-final exit at the 2007 Asian Cup saw his goodwill exhausted as he was replaced by Pim Verbeek later that year.
The 55-year-old coach is currently on leave, with no upcoming Socceroos fixtures announced as of yet.
j binnie
Guest
Brainstrust - Find it quite hard to follow your logic in this reply.You move from situation to situation,firstly hinting Arnold had nothing to do with the CCM team that reached 2 grand finals when he was the coach. You then jump to perceived weaknesses in his selection for the Sydney FC team when in fact they won two championships with Arnold again in charge. Now it is obvious you don't rate Arnold as a coach and hint that after recent results he should be dumped ,but I remember Socceroo teams over the last 3 or 4 coaches having exactly the same problem when scoring goals. That was the point of my statement,if it was Arnold,van Marwick,Postecoglou,Osiek or even Verbeek, coaching, the problem re.native born strikers does not go away. Cheers jb
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Most of those players were there when he got to the Mariners, McKinna built a very good squad on a budget the best performing coach in the history of the A-league in my book considering the finances and players he kept losing . Arnold made the Mariners spend a lot more than they ever did when he got there, you forget Montogomery, at Sydney the tradition of getting a famous player was also thrown out the window to protect Arnold , and again the spending book was opened up. Phil Moss outperformed Arnold at the Mariners despite his squad being reduced even further when he took over there. The problem with Arnold and the Socceroos is he is very rigid in where he believes players can play and his big man preference. The central striker is the biggest weakness he has, I remember how many games Sydney lost because he put on two strikers at the end and took off Brosque when one was already too tired. Sydney commited harikari for four seasons when they got rid of the competitions best ever player at his peak by not matching 400k and then paying Emerton 1.2 million a year instead. Brosque carried Arnold and his lazy front men at Sydney , and the year Brosque was injured Arnold couldn;t even make the finals. If central striker is the biggest weakness then he started 2 when he should not have picked one to start. Giannou is quite technically talented but lazy and has no poaching ability. McLaren is next to useless now, a few seasons ago he was at least hard working. Leckie is a good header of the ball and ideal for starting at striker. Then he should have put his thinking cap on get rid of Degenek the disaster, confine Milligan the midfield liability back to center back. Grant should have been moved central alongside Luongo, and Risdon brough in. Irvine moved to attacking mid where he would get into the box. So two of the best headers of the ball in the squad in the area, pepper it and Grant box to box as well. That would have been the end of UAE and their plans.
Stu
Roar Rookie
Wait, whaa..?! Dang it!!! Damn, you can't do this to me Graham. You moving to Scotland was my dream move! Aaaargh!!!!
jbinnie
Guest
Let's give the coach a chance. Graham has built his coaching career in a club environment,and if one closely follows what ,and how, he achieved success in that genre they will know he built his teams around what is often termed as a tough "spine". In his CCM days he was not slow at tempting, or procuring overseas, talent to fill the crucial positions in his teams. centrebacks like Wilkinson and Zwaanswijk. midfielders like Bozanic ,Hutch,and McGlinchy and forwards like Simon and Mc Breen. This team for a few years was extremely successful and then players started to move to greener pastures and the coach soon followed suit to Sydney FC where he decided on the same course of manning and over his tenure brought players like Wilkinson,Buis, Nincovic, Bobo,Janko,De Jong,Van Der Linden,Mierzejewski and Le Fondre to fill these vital position. Then came the next step National team manager,and suddenly he was faced with a dilemma that his four coaching predecessors have all had, the ,lack of natural strikers,and so,what to do? You cannot contact overseas agents and tell them you need a striker for the national team, so no matter if it is GA or some super coach,the problem is going to be exactly the same. Cheers jb.
striker
Guest
His not up to it, we will not qualify next world cup under him.