Being a successful coach is not a popularity contest. You are given the job to help individuals fulfil their potential, and they or the team achieve success. Of course if they like you as a person, then that can be a bonus.
Case in point many years ago having a beer with a professional athlete who had just won the league that season they sat moaning and complaining about what a bastard the coach was. They had just achieved their goal. They had won the league, yet he was still not happy. So he was asked how many league titles he had won before that point in his career. The answer was none. So maybe this coach had done a great job? The challenge was then laid down, in years to come will they look back on this season as the highlight of their career? Will it be the only league title they ever win?
This athlete played professionally for another ten years and never won another title. Was it the highlight of their career, maybe. It was certainly the most successful.
While it may have been understandable that Socceroos coach Graham Arnold had a swipe at his critics after his team’s 1-0 victory over Tunisia to keep the nation’s World Cup dream alive, one has to ask if it was necessary. Arnold has been around the game a long time and should know better than anyone that there will always be critics. There will always be differing opinions. They come with the territory. At the end of the day as a coach you are judged on results.
Maybe his outburst shows us just how much pressure he is in fact under, that on this occasion he let his emotions get the better of him.
Whether fans, or pundits like Graham Arnold the man or the coach is irrelevant, that victory and the fact that he managed to oversee another World Cup finals qualification for the Socceroos deserves respect. The qualification itself was remarkable with the set of players he had. It also hopefully made some look at the achievements of those who achieved it prior to Arnold, and hopefully people will now realise that this is not guaranteed for Australia, and that the previous coaches deserve a great deal more respect than some have been shown.
Credit must be given to Graham Arnold for the way he has evolved as a coach. When he became player/coach at Northern Spirit in the old National Soccer League, despite the side making the finals play-offs in his first season many believed that the late Ian Crook was the man pulling the coaching strings.
When Frank Farina was appointed coach of the Socceroos, despite being the first of the candidates to be eliminated, he made Arnold his assistant. When the axe fell on Farina’s time at the helm, ironically following a defeat to Tunisia at the 2005 Confederations Cup in Germany, he was replaced by Dutchman Guus Hiddink. Arnold is said to have been torn at the time. Loyalty to his friend Frank Farina, and the offer to stay on as assistant coach and help Hiddink become more aware of the Australian players at his disposal. Farina is said to have told Arnold to stay, after all in the fickle world of football it was a job.
Arnold became caretaker coach after the departure of Hiddink following the 2006 World Cup, and did not have a happy time at the helm at the 2007 Asian Cup. He then became coach of the under 23 side before being offered the assistant role when Pim Verbeek took on the national role
There can be no doubt that Arnold learned a great deal working with these two Dutch coaches, and after the 2010 World Cup in South Africa he became coach of the Central Coast Mariners in the A-League. In his three years at the club he guided them to three top two finishes, one premiership and one championship.
He had an unsuccessful time in Japan before returning to the A-League and Sydney FC where once again he oversaw a period of success for the club he was managing. This confirmed how far he had come as a coach. Sydney FC were A-League Runners Up in 2014-15, Premiers in 2016–17, and 2017–18, Champions in 2017 and FFA Cup winners in the same year.
In 2018 he was appointed head coach of the Socceroos. Some said it was because he was not going to cost Football Australia as much as an overseas high profile coach. Others felt that he had earned the opportunity. Certainly he has repaid the faith shown in him.
However, as one friend who is not an avid football fan noticed, the media in Australia are split in terms of their support of the Australian coach. It is blatantly obvious those who are ‘Arnie fans,’ and those who are not.
So why is this? Some will call it jealousy. They may be right. After all he was given a position with a national team when in coaching terms he was just entering puberty. Then as coaches left he hung in there and survived. What these people may have failed to accept is that he has turned that time to his advantage and has become a better coach and man-manager.
Possibly one of the reasons why there is antagonism towards Arnold from some sections of the media, and especially ex players goes back a long way. During his playing career Arnold and a few of the other initial players to go overseas made a conscious effort to stay in touch with the media in Australia, and feed them stories on their careers to keep them front of mind. Others expected the media to be following them.
The relationships he created during that time continued with his evolution into management. It has been alleged that he would feed certain writers stories from within the Socceroos that others would miss out on. It was funny how the same journalists always had the scoop. The FFA as they were then were baffled as to how the news had been leaked, or that was the line they trotted out. Certainly one of the coaches was sure he knew where the information was coming from.
Those who missed out on the scoop were no doubt called in by their editors and asked why they did not know this. So that humiliation will have rankled, and most in the media have very long memories. As many modern day stars have found if you want to flirt with the media you need to be very careful as sometimes it can come back and bite you. While ink may no longer be their chosen weapon it is always worth remembering the words of Mark Twain. “Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.”
As for the criticism over the Socceroos performance against France most of it was warranted. In 35 years of living in this country that was the first time this writer has witnessed an Australian side not appear to show any pride in the shirt they are wearing, and fight to the final whistle for some form of respect. It was an insipid performance. Why one player who was being torn to shreds was not substituted was beyond belief.
However, this is where sport can be a wonderful thing. That game became history when the side took the field against Tunisia. The players and coach would now be judged on how they performed in this match. This time they showed the passion, commitment, application and determination expected from Australian teams, and it paid dividends.
As the leader of this group of men, Graham Arnold deserves credit and respect for achieving such a turnaround.
He deserves respect for being just the third coach to win a game at the World Cup Finals. You do not have to like the guy or his tactics, but you cannot deny that what he has achieved qualifying and winning against Tunisia warrants respect.
