Interview with Graham Arnold

[Socceroo_06]

Heat could have been fatal (http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,20392498-5006068,00.html)
DEFIANT Socceroos caretaker coach Graham Arnold will continue to introduce new faces despite the hostile reaction to Australia's loss to Kuwait last week.

That experimentation will, however, be put on hold for next month's internationals against Paraguay and Bahrain.

Arnold, who insists he's not feeling the heat, believes it is important that the players who did so well at the World Cup come home and pay their respects to the fans who gave them such a lift in Germany – as he revealed to The Daily Telegraph this week from Europe, where he is on another coaching course.

Q: Do you regret bringing in some new players?

A: I'm the interim coach. What I am trying to do is provide the new man with a list of 25 to 30 players for the 2010 World Cup assault on South Africa. But first, I want as many of the World Cup boys to come home for the next two games and say a big thank you to the Australian public for the way they supported them in Germany.

A lot of the boys have shown great interest and I am confident of getting as many as 18 to show up.

I am very honoured to be doing what I'm doing but I believe expectations have been far too high on the Socceroos since the World Cup.

Going into Asia is a very different ballgame and I've learned a lot from our trips to Bahrain and particularly Kuwait City.

Logistically we still face the same problems getting our players, whereas the Asian countries have the advantage in that their players play at home, like the Kuwait team.

Q: Do you think if you'd have had the likes of Tim Cahill, Mark Viduka and Marco Bresciano in Kuwait the result may have been different?

A: I don't think so. You just can't turn up in a country that hot, have two one-hour training sessions and expect to perform at the highest level. It was 55C in the day – you couldn't even leave your hotel. On match night it's 35C and the humidity is 70 per cent.

Q: How dangerous is that?

A: Scott Chipperfield, for example, lost 4½ kilos and four per cent body fat. It could become fatal. The players gave everything but they had nothing left in the tank.

Q: What if we were to draw Kuwait in our World Cup group?

A: We're not in Oceania any more. We are up against countries who have a lot of money and can prepare much better. Before Kuwait came to Sydney for the first Asian Cup qualifier they were in a camp in Germany and spent a week in Sydney. Then, after the game here, they went to Turkey for 12 days to prepare for the second leg. We had two days. The lessons are very clear. We have to go there and acclimatise – a 10-day camp at least.

Q: A-League players did so well in the first match. Would you have liked to have taken some to Kuwait?

A: Yes, but the A-League doesn't fall into line with FIFA dates. I had no choice but to pick players from Europe. Suddenly they are faced with different climatic conditions and only had a very short time to prepare.

Q: Do you think the players underestimated the challenge?

A: No, not at all. There was no complacency. Everything I asked for they gave me. They were just not used to these murderous conditions. We had chances to score early but the longer it went the more difficult it became. Imagine if this was a World Cup return qualifier. We won 2-0 in Sydney and lost 2-0 in normal time over there. That's extra time – the players would have been dead.

Q: Did anyone impress you?

A: I thought striker Brett Holman did exceptionally well for 75 minutes. He was very busy and linked well.

Q: What's the big message for Football Federation Australia?

A: You have to go there early to prepare for heat like that and somehow we have to avoid playing World Cup qualifiers in their summer months. Asia offers new challenges.

[gweeds]

Interesting commentary by Michael Cockerill (http://www.smh.com.au/news/football/why-arnie-is-on-a-hiding-to-nothing/2006/09/08/1157222330602.html) in the SMH that I think was not posted in this forum. Basically he's saying that like Frank Farina the FFA is not helping Arnold at all, and infact they are plotting for his demise already and by not helping him they are softening him up for the sack (although this seem strange to me as he always refers himself as an 'interim coach') anyway read the article yourself and see what you think:

Why Arnie is on a hiding to nothing

Michael Cockerill
September 9, 2006

THE hair-trigger of public opinion has already shot Graham Arnold down in flames in the wake of Wednesday's demoralising loss to Kuwait. Dig deeper, though, and this was a defeat waiting to happen. Making Arnold the scapegoat solves nothing and masks everything. There are far more important lessons to be learnt.

The Socceroos are a team in transition, and an organisation without direction. Guus Hiddink got out for a lot of reasons, but one was that he could see this coming. Arnold is filling in on a match-by-match basis, and without any real support from the man who employs him, Frank Lowy. In truth, he's on a hiding to nothing.

Arnold's getting a hiding now, because of the loss in Kuwait City. Like any coach, he's accountable for results, and this wasn't a good one. He'll have to wear it, and he is. Certainly his decision not to use a third substitute was puzzling. Nick Ward on for Brett Holman might have bought a late dividend. Arnold didn't get it all right, but then neither did Hiddink. Remember Italy?

Yet to call for his head after his first defeat in three matches as caretaker coach defies logic, and understanding. Arnold has the job because, as it stands, none of the so-called "big names" want it. At least not yet. The coaching elite are just that because they learn to read the signs, and those signs suggest the Australian job will be a better job in a year's time than it is now. So they're waiting, and that's why Arnold is filling in. And maybe being hung out to dry in the process.

It's a funny thing, the way the governing body treats its local coaches. Frank Arok once had to pay his own airfare to spy on the opposition. Frank Farina endured six years of political upheaval at board level, and was told in 2001 that he'd have to take only local players to the Oceania Nations Cup because there was no money to bring in players from abroad. No surprise, the Socceroos lost the final to New Zealand.

In between times, Terry Venables was handed a fat contract, allowed to continue living in London, and put up in a ritzy apartment at The Rocks on the few occasions he came to our shores. Venables failed, too, but public opinion was quick to forgive him.

And then Hiddink came along, allowed to stay in Holland where he coached PSV Eindhoven, given a charter plane to fly the players back from Uruguay, given everything he wanted. Hiddink was given every chance to succeed, and he did. But again, because he was a "big name" foreigner, he was treated like a king. Not like Arok, or Eddie Thomson, or Farina. And now, not like Arnold. Is it a wonder local coaches struggle for recognition when they are consistently treated like second-class citizens.

Consider this. Since the World Cup, the Socceroos have lost virtually an entire backroom staff. An assistant [Johan Neeskens], a technical director [Ron Smith], two physios [Les Gelis and Arno Phillips], a doctor [Andrew Jowett] and a strength and conditioning coach [Anthony Crea]. Some of these people had been with the national team for seven years. Now they're gone, and have not been replaced, at least not on a permanent basis.

Arnold turned up in Kuwait with a fill-in backroom staff, no assistant John Kosmina was stranded in Australia after his plane developed mechanical problems and no head of delegation. For the first time in memory, head of high performance, John Boultbee, also wasn't there.

It looked like a budget operation, and it was. The squad could easily have assembled in the Middle East a week beforehand, perhaps played a warm-up game in Bahrain, the UAE or Qatar, to get used to the oppressive conditions. But instead the players were flown into Kuwait City only three nights before the match, allowing just enough time for two training sessions. On match day, Arnold even had to do the warm-up before changing into slacks to sit on the bench. Would Hiddink have put up with all this? Not likely. Nor would he have been asked to.

As always, poor preparation equals poor results. The Socceroos patently stuggled to acclimatise to the withering heat some players lost four per cent of their body fat during the 90 minutes. John Aloisi lost three-and-a-half kilos. Nobody can say most of the players didn't push themselves to their physical limits. These aren't excuses, just facts.

There are other facts worth considering. Post-World Cup, the Socceroos are in the process of an overhaul. What that means is trial and error. Arnold picked two completely different squads for the two games against Kuwait. That's 36 players, a fair portion who had never played for their country, or played only a handful of games. It can now be said that some of these players are simply not up to it.

It's been the right time to experiment, and it should not be forgotten that Australia have still managed to qualify for the Asian Cup in the process. There are no good defeats, but the loss in Kuwait City produced more answers than questions. On and off the park. Which is a positive thing.

Perhaps the most salient point to emerge from all this is also the most obvious one Australia cannot take success in Asia for granted. Kuwait were a useful, well-coached, side. Claims that the players are amateurs are disingenuous. For amateurs, they're wealthy enough not to have to be paid for playing for their club sides. When they join the national team, they are treated like professionals and as their 10-day training camp in Turkey proved prepared like them as well. And it showed.

It may have been a tough lesson for the Socceroos, but it was a timely reminder. The depth of Asian football runs deep, and Australia will be punished for any complacency.

[El Zilcho]

Pretty sure Arnold has already said that he doesnt want the job full time?

[Socceroo_06]

I think Cockerill's article is right on the money apart from the Hiddink mistake comparison.

If you look at how the Argentine Football Association dealt with Pekerman, compared to how the FFA deal with Arnold, it's like chalk and cheese.

In 1994, Pekerman was offered to coach the Argentinian national under-20 and under-17 sides by the Argentine Football Association. This caused some surprise as his résumé did not include any major achievements at this stage.

Before Pekerman got the nod as the Argentine coach in 2004/5 he had won the following:
- 3 FIFA World Youth Championship (U-20)
- 2 two South American Youth Championships

Compare this to Arnold's Experience:
- He was coach for 2 games whilst he was a player at Sydney Croatia during the 1989/90 season
- Was Player/Manager at Northern Spirit for 2 seasons, making the finals in the first season

^^^^^

Apart from this he has not even won a champioship as a coach. How can the FFA even consider him to take over the job, even as an "interim". It's really poor form by the FFA and they are the ones who should be criticised and not Arnold.

Arnold should be coaching the U-17 and 20's teams and not the NT. Once he has success at junior level like Pekerman had, then he can be considered to take on the National Team mantle.