The departure of Graham Arnold from the head coaching role with the Socceroos will come as a shock to many and incite plenty of reflection around his time in charge. Statistically, his second tenure at the helm of the national team has been successful in part, with World Cup qualification and participation inspiring the nation equally, a deep squad of players developing under his watch and the team always committed and passionate towards the cause. Yet along the journey, plenty a disaster played out, as we saw evidenced in the recent 1-0 loss to Bahrain that began the current phase of World Cup qualification for the Socceroos, just a fortnight ago.
There was an underwhelming performance at the most recent Asian Cup earlier in the year, when South Korea ended Arnold’s troops tilt at the quarter-final stage and some of the poor results in qualification that lead to what eventually occurred in Qatar cannot be forgotten. All the while, Arnold stuck to his guns and talked the talk. A new era of the UEFA Champions League is here, only on Stan Sport.
The walking of the walk did not always follow, yet never once did the 61-year-old waver from his belief that the team was better than many pundits in Australia thought it was. Every time they would gather, the siege mentality came into play, with the coach always insinuating that there was indeed something to prove. That something was not just the fact that Australia will always be seen as a football backwater to much of the world, bu.