Prominent Australian football commentator and former player Robbie Slater has delivered a stunning drive-by on long-term colleague Mark Bosnich, in an explosive article in The Daily Telegraph.
Slater, who worked alongside Bosnich for years on Fox Sports’ coverage of the A-League, took umbrage with the goalkeeping great’s calls for Socceroos coach Graham Arnold to be sacked should the team fail to automatically qualify for this year’s World Cup in Qatar.
In the process, he attacked both Bosnich’s ‘dumbfounding’ views on Arnold, a close friend of Slater, but also claimed ‘Bozza’ has been ‘letting people down for a very long time’.
“Calls this week from former Socceroos goalkeeper Mark Bosnich that Arnold should be axed if Australia don’t automatically qualify and are forced into sudden-death playoffs to make the World Cup are outrageous and wide of the mark,” Slater wrote.
“Bosnich has insisted it’s not a “personal attack” on Arnie, but given the difference in his approach when it was [former Socceroos coach Ange] Postecoglou in the same position, how could it be anything else?
“Why he has got personal is dumbfounding, considering Arnie played a huge role in bringing Bosnich back to Australia after all of his well-documented problems in the UK.”
Slater’s attack on Bosnich included claims he ‘didn’t seem to interested in playing for Australia’ when he, Slater and Arnold were all part of the Socceroos’ set-up throughout the late 1980s and 1990s.
“A good example was our two-legged playoff against Argentina to qualify for the 1994 World Cup,” Slater wrote.
“Bosnich played the first leg in Sydney, where we drew 1-1, but didn’t fly to Buenos Aires for the second leg in a must-win game.
“Let’s just say that didn’t impress a lot of his national teammates and still doesn’t today.”
Slater opened up on the non-existent relationship he and his former Fox Sports sparring partner have today, saying he ‘hasn’t heard from him’ since Bosnich left Fox to join Stan Sport following the former’s loss of the rights to the A-League.
Since September, Bosnich has been working on the streaming service’s Champions League coverage.
“Maybe Bosnich’s attack on Arnie is an indirect shot at me given that I haven’t heard from him since he left Fox Sports last year,” Slater wrote.
“We used to speak to each other daily but since he moved to Stan Sport – where he works with people he didn’t seem to like a year ago – he has cut off all contact with me.
“For me, that’s a character flaw but he has been letting people down for a very long time.”
While Slater’s attacks on Bosnich has predictably caused a stir, one other claim he made in the article has swiftly been picked apart.
Slater, a vocal critic of coach Ange Postecoglou during his tenure as Australian coach between 2013 and 2017, claimed ‘not once did we [he and Bosnich] say that he [Postecoglou] should be sacked before the playoffs’ leading into the 2018 World Cup.
“For whatever reason, Bosnich doesn’t want Arnie to have the same chance,” he wrote.
However, Twitter user Jason Calleja was quick to prove his claims were bogus, unearthing a Fox Sports article from September 2017 in which Slater called for just that.
???????? https://t.co/vz2LjHY9qK pic.twitter.com/PDrEISZG96
— ALM (@TheRealALM) February 6, 2022
“I’ve seen enough,” Slater wrote.
“Ange Postecoglou has had his chance to steer the national team and now it’s time for a change before the Socceroos have to go through a qualifying play-off series to make it to Russia in 2018.
“Holger Osieck and Pim Verbeek didn’t have the luxury of finishing third; by this stage in both their campaigns, we were home. Verbeek had done it with games to spare.
“We keep hearing about the road to Russia – the journey and development process – being more important than making the World Cup.
“Sorry, we’re on a road to nowhere.”
Bosnich, too, had called for Postecoglou to face the axe, just as he has done for Arnold in recent weeks.
Sydney Morning Herald journalist Vince Rugari quickly unearthed the proof.
So much for that actually. It only took me one google search to discover Bozza also suggested that Ange should have been sacked if the Socceroos were forced into the play-offs.
But nah it’s personal!https://t.co/rchrGB4K6c pic.twitter.com/PN791L0GMI
— Vince Rugari (@VinceRugari) February 6, 2022
Slater’s attacks on Bosnich have been derided on social media since popular Twitter account A-League memes posted a screenshot of the article, described as an ‘absolute sook’ with his conduct deemed “childish and embarrassing”.
Sokkah Twitter popcorn time.
Robbie Slater using his column for a personal hit piece on Mark Bosnich is hilarious. It’s also littered with lies.The same Robbie Slater who walked out on a primary school play about the Stolen Generation. https://t.co/SiNCR6oCiE pic.twitter.com/DNBaQCjgbd
— Rory Flanagan (@Rory_Flanagan) February 6, 2022
What an absolute sook Robbie Slater is. Fmd. Can someone stick a dummy in this child?
— Dave M (@jh_70) February 6, 2022
The opinion piece by Robbie Slater is childish and embarrassing. He can't make his point without launching irrelevant personal attacks on Bozza.
Bozza's past has nothing to do with his call to sack Arnie. Arnie's poor performance is why there are calls to sack him.
— Graham's Gooch (@RunnaLittle) February 6, 2022
And people wonder why Robbie Slater is no longer on our TV screens. This is really low from him. https://t.co/VMk60mL14t
— Nic Rojas (@Nic_Rojas_99) February 6, 2022
Honestly, that Robbie Slater article is absolutely fried on so many levels.
— Nick G (@ghana3032) February 6, 2022
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
What if we celebrated all of the achievements big and small, and weeded out those hell-bent on bringing down a game that is doing a hell of a lot right?
A good performance from Michael Ruhs, scoring twice to beat Macarthur and doubling his season goal tally in the process.
Nestory Irankunda has sensationally rejected the chance to play at the Paris Olympics this June after a late bid from the Olyroos to include…
Mathew Ryan's tenure at AZ Alkmaar appears to be over, as the Eredivisie side are seemingly moving on from the 93-time Socceroo. The decision…
One down 49 to go. Socceroos striker Kusini Yengi raised some eyebrows this week when he declared himself to be the talisman striker the…
To the critics, I say simply, show a little more respect to a Lebanon team that has been steadily improving.
