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FFA boss David Gallop was in Paris to give Socceroos coach Holger Osieck the flick, so how about he slips back across the Channel to have a meaningful with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger?
Aiming too high?
Probably, but if you don’t ask the question, you don’t get the answer.
But Gallop will have to gallop. Wenger is poised to re-sign with the Gunners for another three years which will take the Frenchman to two decades with the club.
And he’s 64 on October 22, a likely time to put pen to paper on the dotted line.
Arsene Wenger, Socceroos coach – now wouldn’t that be the ultimate.
It would cost FFA around $15-18m a year, but if the governing body can spend $40m, with the help of the Federal Government, in that smell-like-a-dead-rat FIFA vote that awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, $15-18m would be a snip for someone of Wenger’s stature.
He has everything the Socceroos need.
When he first took over Arsenal on 1 October 1996, they were known as ‘boring, boring with no creativity’.
Sound familiar?
Following the Socceroos is like watching grass grow, and paint dry. They are ranked 53rd in the world, which doesn’t say much for the 154 other countries ranked behind them.
Let me put my cards on the table, I am not a football fan, but like every other sports-minded Australian, I want the Socceroos to do well every time they turn out.
They are representing us.
But like the baggy greens and the Wallabies for most of 2013, the Socceroos have been a disaster – 6-0 down to Brazil, 6-0 down to France, two embarrassing shellackings.
Good sides don’t get flogged 6-0 by anybody.
It must be a sinking feeling for Frank Lowy, who more than anyone else in Australia has supported the round-ball sport, especially out of his own pocket.
He had to pinch John O’Neill from rugby, and Gallop from rugby league, to keep the momentum he set up.
The A-League is healthy, the crowds are healthy, but the national side is sick, almost terminally so.
Get Arsene.
And if that’s too far from left field, Guus Hiddink.
That’s not to say Ange Postecoglou, Graham Arnold, or Tony Popovic can’t do the job, but Hiddink tapped into the Australian talent and took them to the World Cup for the first time since Rale Rasic broke the drought in 1974.
Hiddink, like Wenger, has that touch of class.
It’s probably too late for Rio, but at least Hiddink has the football nous to make the best of what he’s got.
Looking back on how the Socceroos have been coached over the years, there have been some doosies in the chair.
Englishman Jim Shoulder (1976-78), Germany’s Rudi Gutendorf (1979-81) – what a shambles he was – Hungarian Frank Arok (1983-89), Scot Eddie Thomson (1990-96) another Englishman Terry Venables (1997-98) who you had to make an appointment to see him, if and when he was ready – and then one of the very worst – Pim Verbeek from 2007 to 2010, Mr Negative in the extreme.
But Guus was a breath of fresh air, and would be welcomed back with open arms.
That’s if Arsene Wenger isn’t available. It’s still worth a shot, long odds or whatever.
Time to get the very best for what should be the best Australian football team.