Farina: Craig Foster is 'ludicrous and disgusting'

[Alistair]

EDIT: Farina actually labeled Foster's comments ;udicrous and disgusting, not Foster himself.

From Fox Sports:


Foster ludicrous and disgusting
By Frank Farina
September 15, 2006

I WAS stunned to hear calls for the head of Australia coach Graham Arnold after the Socceroos' loss to Kuwait last week.

Are the Socceroos expected to win every game of football because they qualified for the World Cup?

Kuwait had three weeks to train together in the lead-up to a match played in its home country.

Australia, on the other hand, had only a couple of days to gel as a team and a handful of the squad had made the trip from Europe to take part, so Kuwait had a clear advantage.

To put things in perspective, this was the first match for the Socceroos since going down to Italy 1-0 to drop out of World Cup contention.

But it didn't stop the witchhunt that emerged from SBS headquarters courtesy of commentators Craig Foster and Les Murray.

Foster immediately called for Arnold to be sacked and I thought his comments were ludicrous and disgusting.

Perhaps there is some tension at SBS because they have lost the TV rights to all forms of the game aside from Champions League matches and the Australia-Paraguay friendly in Brisbane next month.

But Foster appears to have an agenda here and I think the game can do without this sort of negativity.

Football Federation Australia has made clear it plans to replace Arnold after next year's Asian Cup and I think it's unnecessary to call for his sacking any sooner than this.

To assume that we will win every game of football that we turn out for is unrealistic.

One game of football that a team does need to win will unfold at Suncorp Stadium tonight between Queensland Roar and New Zealand Knights.

Without putting too much pressure on Queensland, this is a game that could transform its entire season.

With two wins - one away from home - and a draw under its belt Roar is coming back to its home ground with a huge wave of momentum behind it. A good win tonight will hand it a huge early-season platform of 10 points and erase a lot of the stigma surrounding the Roar's ability to win at home, a record that haunted it throughout the first season.

A loss would add a lot more pressure to home matches and make it more difficult, confidence-wise, when it hosts Adelaide United next weekend.

New Zealand is obviously an improved side compared to last season and it has surprised a few teams, but so has Roar.

I don't think it is going too far to say that if Roar wins tonight, it would set itself up as a serious finals contender, if not a championship contender.

I am tipping Queensland to win. I'm also tipping Adelaide to beat Perth Glory, Sydney FC to get past Newcastle Jets and Melbourne Victory to beat Central Coast Mariners.

It was a shame to see the Mariners play Queensland in such bad conditions in Gosford on the weekend.

It was a game that should have been postponed because it was a potentially good game that was killed by the conditions and both teams deserved better.

Finally, Sydney FC's decision to sign Benito Carbone is interesting and hopefully one that works out for both the club and the 35 year old, who could start his four-game stint as soon as Sunday.

[XYNO]

Farina is a joke....yes an even bigger joke than foster....two years out of the job, and he's still trying to help his incompetent buddies

Fucking hell, was bad enough he made these excuses for himself, noe he's making them for his inept mate as well

[sarge]

Football Federation Australia has made clear it plans to replace Arnold after next year's Asian Cup and I think it's unnecessary to call for his sacking any sooner than this.

This has been know for months...
I love Craig Foster he is one passionate socceroo fan, but he must keep the whole situation in perspective...what happens to the Socceroo's if they sack Graham Arnold now ?

[Socceroo_06]

Surely we will not do well in the Asia Cup if Arnold is coaching.

[Carlton life member]

Farina is right

[XYNO]

But Foster appears to have an agenda here and I think the game can do without this sort of negativity.


Of Course farina has no agenda what so ever.

[Socceroo_06]

I'm sorry but what has Arnold achieved to deserve to coach the socceroos? You think he can out-coach Ivica Osim (Japan), Pim Verbeek (Sth Korea), or even Marcos Paquetá (Saudi Arabia)?

I'm sick of this mediocrity!! Arnold does not deserve to coach the NT, end of story.

[Dantè Hicks]

Farina is still bitter.

Arnold is part of his legacy, therefore he will defend him wherever he sees fit.

Fact of that matter is, Arnold should go, eventually. All these excuses Farina has dredged up is so typical of his tenure as Australia boss.

It's Foster's job to have an opinion. Farina's anti-SBS agenda has been known of for a long time, so anything he says in their direction is to be taken with a grain of salt.

[TP]

well with an attitude like that it's no wonder farina got sacked.

IT'S FUCKING KUWAIT!

[magpie]

Farina is right

is he?

honestly you could see how poor a coach arnold is in our last 2 games. The games against Kuwait showed us to be poorly prepared (ok that is a feasible excuse in the second game, but not the first). He has no ability to organise the defence or the midfield. It looked like the Australia of old, no idea, just boot the ball up the field and hope that our physical ability could win us the game. If we want to have any chance of winning the asian cup next year, get rid of arnold and get in a quality coach with a decent international track record. If Arnold wants to prove himself it should be at the expense of one of the youth teams, not the socceroos as we cannot afford to fail at this level, there is too much riding on this (marketing, future participation of youngsters) to have an unproven coach like arnold taking us to one of the biggest tournaments in the world.

[XYNO]

I'm quite worried about the future of football in this country at the moment, to be quite frank.

The deafening silence from the FFA regarding ANY topic, seems to me, to suggest that they think the job is done already, where in my opinion it hasn't even begun.

I hope to hell i'm fucking wrong!!

[sarge]

I'm quite worried about the future of football in this country at the moment, to be quite frank.

The deafening silence from the FFA regarding ANY topic, seems to me, to suggest that they think the job is done already, where in my opinion it hasn't even begun.

I hope to hell i'm fucking wrong!!

I agree ...I hope there is an announcement from the FFA regarding Guus Hiddinks replacement ... very soon.
Graham Arnold does not deserve to be ridiculed any further.. he is an assistant coach.. the role of head coach must be filled before christmas to get our Asia Cup team prepared ...

[Dantè Hicks]

IMO, when the new man comes in to take control - he should put in place his own back room, and get rid of the Farina dead wood.

[Carlton life member]

we have qualified for the ACL under Arnold
and lost a game

pros and cons there

Arnold was held in good enough esteem by Hiddink, it seems

he is already on limited tenure

what is to be gained by talking him down further at this point?

I think he deserves more of a chance than this, anyway

some of you may remember that I predicted a slump of form in the world cup hangover, and calls for the coach's head, whoever he may be

I was pleased to see that the A-League based team managed to do the job

it didn't surprise me at all that the OS based team lost - they were rushed together, playing in difficult conditions with little at stake, and their heads full of the start of the club season

it seems the FFA does not wish to appoint the next coach yet - there are hints that they are waiting for Guus, but who knows

but I would hope that if they are going to sack Arnold, that they would act like St Kilda - discrete and organised, then decisive

whateever Arnold's skills, we gain nothing by making him a lame duck via a nasty public smear campaign

the English press treat the England coaches like this, and look where that gets them

[Victory2006]

Fuck off Farina, nobody wants to know about your opinions you hack job. You drove Australia into the ground throughout your tenure, and achieved nothing.

Those that think he's right, you're deluded. Just remember that He and Arnold are best mates, so for him to jump to Arnold's defence is just natural, and comes from a completely biased view.

Arnold is another Farina, and after our experience with Guus, Foster has every right to call for his head. He doesn't command the respect of the players, instead, they think he's a mate, and can do whatever the fuck they like, just like it was when Farina was in charge.

[gweeds]

O'Neill said that with the Euro championships lots of high quality coaches were unavailable and this drove up the prices.

It may be that international coaches will only be interested in Australia when the world cup qualifiers start and that would give them a chance to go to the world's premier event.

[vbwhite]

Fuck off Farina, nobody wants to know about your opinions you hack job. You drove Australia into the ground throughout your tenure, and achieved nothing.

Those that think he's right, you're deluded. Just remember that He and Arnold are best mates, so for him to jump to Arnold's defence is just natural, and comes from a completely biased view.

Arnold is another Farina, and after our experience with Guus, Foster has every right to call for his head. He doesn't command the respect of the players, instead, they think he's a mate, and can do whatever the fuck they like, just like it was when Farina was in charge.

Agree entirely with all sentiments in this post, especially the "best mates" crap that they're all involved in. Read Slater's autobiography if you want any more evidence of the Farina/Arnold/Slater club.

[Socceroo_06]

O'Neill said that with the Euro championships lots of high quality coaches were unavailable and this drove up the prices.

It may be that international coaches will only be interested in Australia when the world cup qualifiers start and that would give them a chance to go to the world's premier event.

Bullshit! There are plenty of high quality coaches out there atm. Ones that come to mind are:
Henry Michel
Dick Advocaat
Jose Pekerman

[stinger]

Bullshit! There are plenty of high quality coaches out there atm. Ones that come to mind are:
Henry Michel
Dick Advocaat
Jose Pekerman

Eddie Krencivic.

[Victory2006]

Eddie Krencivic.

Dobson > Daylight > A Vortex > Krncevic. ;)

[sarge]

Lippi rejects Italy role
From correspondents in Milan
September 15, 2006

ITALY'S World Cup-winning coach, Marcello Lippi, has rejected the idea of a return the national team in a supervisor capacity.

Guido Rossi, head of the Italian Football Federation, had floated the idea of Lippi taking on such a role at the head of the federation's technical department.

"I will never be a supervisor because that is not my trade," said the former Juventus coach who led Italy to victory on penalties over France in July's World Cup final in Berlin.

Lippi gave backing to his replacement, new Italy coach Roberto Donadoni, who has come under criticism following the poor start to the Azzurri's Euro 2008 qualifying campaign.

"I respect him a lot and I am convinced he will find a good relationship with his players," said Lippi said in comments reported by the news agency ANSA.

Italy drew at home to Lithuania and then lost 3-1 to France in its opening Group B games, but Lippi said the world champion will find its form again.

"I have no doubt that they will get back to great form and that Roberto will be able to bring the best out of them – he is a great lad. He was a kind of coach on the field when he was a player," he said.

Lippi has previously said he intends to return to club coaching, but confirmed he is in no hurry to get back into the game just yet.

"At the moment I am still enjoying the aftertaste of the World Cup which I think will last a good while yet. It would be daft to take on a club after one or two weeks of the season," he said.

"I have had some calls from non-Italian clubs but I didn't meet with any club directors," said Lippi, who would be high on the list of any top European clubs who might change coach in mid-season.

Lippi had been linked with Manchester United during the World Cup but rejected the rumours by pointing out his lack of English language skills.

Asked about his English he replied "It is a little bit better".

Reuters

[RobCFC]

I'll manage the side.

[Victory2006]

I'll manage the side.

Which pool will you train in?

[Masterchief_the_Return]

Eddie Merrick for Australian National Coach ;)

[traja47]

may be Arnold needs Kosmina's brain to coach, since Kosmina could not travel to Kuwait.

I don't think Arnold can do the job. they need a more experienced coach

[stmookeyj]

Hey Frankie, are you dating Germaine Greer by any chance?

[DA_DON]

Foster comes across as a grandstanding bafoon at times but I think he is right on the money in regard to Arnold. Arnie's pissing in the wind if he thinks he deserves to hang onto the job for much longer. We lost 2-0 to a bunch of PE teachers and policemen in kuwait city and that simply isn't good enough whatever way you want to look at it.

We qualified for the Asian cup but our aim is to win games, build momentum and morale (players, fans, etc).

Farina, what can I say? You're a two-bob joker and everyone sees right through you. You are 'technically and tactically average' as they say on SBS, lol.

[Ascoli Calcio]

Hear Hear Frank.

Fair enough Farina couldn't cut it at the top. But he wasn't really that bad. His record is fairly good. I know he only beat England in a friendly but a win it was all the same. He got us mightily close to a World Cup- something done by more heralded coaches like Venables and Arok etc...All Farina was in hindsight was history repeating with a longer life span.

I agree he had to go- years of mediocrity would've followed- but he wasn't that bad a coach. For the record Fozzie is a joke IMO and Farina has every right to say it.

Whether we like it or not Arnold will be Australia's coach one day. I've got no problems with it conditionally- that being that when we do get a new manager to replace Guus he goes out of the system for a few years. He should've accepted the job at NAC Breda. If he spends four or five years in Europe developing his game, I'm all for him coming back to coach us.

[Socceroo_06]

Hear Hear Frank.

Fair enough Farina couldn't cut it at the top. But he wasn't really that bad. His record is fairly good. I know he only beat England in a friendly but a win it was all the same. He got us mightily close to a World Cup- something done by more heralded coaches like Venables and Arok etc...All Farina was in hindsight was history repeating with a longer life span.

I agree he had to go- years of mediocrity would've followed- but he wasn't that bad a coach. For the record Fozzie is a joke IMO and Farina has every right to say it.

Whether we like it or not Arnold will be Australia's coach one day. I've got no problems with it conditionally- that being that when we do get a new manager to replace Guus he goes out of the system for a few years. He should've accepted the job at NAC Breda. If he spends four or five years in Europe developing his game, I'm all for him coming back to coach us.


That is the biggest load of bullshit i have ever read on this forum. NT coaches need to be successful, not developed. Arnold toped his class during is UEFA coaching licence test, does that mean he is a world class coach? FUCK NO!

We need coaches that have been successful. Argentina got Pekerman only after he was successful at junior level (3 FIFA youth championships, 2 Sth American Youth Championships), and stints at clubs like colo-colo etc.

Farina was an embaressmant as a coach. Arnold is heading in that direction. We are no longer a football minnow and we should not accept mediocrity. We should be going after the best that is available to us, and in my opinion, Arnie is not the best available coach.

[Ascoli Calcio]

You can teach someone theory until they're black and fucking blue but it aint gonna make a difference unless they apply it.

You're judging Arnie on one game! Fuck, Guus only beat the Solomons 2-1!!! So if Arnie goes off and gets a taste of coaching and is succesful then yeh he can come back.

Really who can we attract. We tried with O'Neill and failed. Beenhakker and Failed. Pekerman and failed. How about Sven?

[Socceroo_06]

You can teach someone theory until they're black and fucking blue but it aint gonna make a difference unless they apply it.

You're judging Arnie on one game! Fuck, Guus only beat the Solomons 2-1!!! So if Arnie goes off and gets a taste of coaching and is succesful then yeh he can come back.

Really who can we attract. We tried with O'Neill and failed. Beenhakker and Failed. Pekerman and failed. How about Sven?

How about Henry Michel? Dick Advocaat?

[Ascoli Calcio]

I agree with Michel and Advocaat but all I was saying was whether you like it or not, sometime in the future, we will have an Aussie coach, and it'll most likely be Arnold!

He was offered a job at NAC Breda and didn't take it. He should've! There are plenty of coaches, it's just how far Lowy wants to open that chequebook. He could get Lippi if he tried hard enough.

[futuremelvicstar]

Frank Farina and his anti-sbs that's all it is. My opinion on the topic is keep Arnold until the FFA are ready to hire the right man for the job.
Pro's against Kuwait
- We controled the ball nicely and did not hoof the ball down often.We played the short passing game but you could see we were a bit rusty.

Con's against Kuwait
- Didn't have a long enough training camp(Arnold has already said that we need a ten day training camp in the future)
- The short passing game was good but not established and it will take time for us to learn how to play that style properly.
- Our players didn't have that final bit of ethier skill or team work,luck to break down the Kuwait defence.

Conclusion
All those Problems would've been solved if we had a ten day training camp. The problem with Australia is all our players play in different parts in the world and play different styles. They need adleast a ten day training camp to adjust to the style Arnold wants them to play.We were rusty on the short passing game but at times used it effectivly, it will take many years for us to get it right and the more they play together the better. Our team worked lacked also because there was a short training camp and the team has not played together under the "new style" many times. Keep Arnold until new coach comes in. I am more worried about the new coach then Arnold and the Asian cup atm. The new coach is a major issue if we get a someone who plays a different style to Arnold then our players will have to adjust again so i think it should be someone from the europe region as that is the style we are starting to play.

[Simon]

T'will be very interesting to see Fozzie's response.............

[Dashgar]

Farina is right. You can't go calling for a coaches head after 1 game. Especially a game which is a dead rubber for us. Sure we're playing Kuwait, but we were playing a Kuwait team hungry to make the Asian Cup when we were already there. Farina had a lot of excuses in his time. But most were deserved. It took one of the best coaches in the world to get Australia to the world cup and even then we only scraped through on penalty's. Anyone inferior to Hiddink would have been beaten by Uruguay, and thats 99.9% of the worlds managers. Farina did a better job than many think as Manager of the Socceroos. People would be wise to take more notice of what he says. He has won a lot more games as a national team manager than Craig Foster.

[Carlton life member]

Farina is right. You can't go calling for a coaches head after 1 game. Especially a game which is a dead rubber for us. Sure we're playing Kuwait, but we were playing a Kuwait team hungry to make the Asian Cup when we were already there. Farina had a lot of excuses in his time. But most were deserved. It took one of the best coaches in the world to get Australia to the world cup and even then we only scraped through on penalty's. Anyone inferior to Hiddink would have been beaten by Uruguay, and thats 99.9% of the worlds managers. Farina did a better job than many think as Manager of the Socceroos. People would be wise to take more notice of what he says. He has won a lot more games as a national team manager than Craig Foster.

good post

I agree

Farina is not given the credit he deserves. Hiddink could not have done what he did until he had the right material to work with, and Farina contributed to getting them that far. It was correct to replace him, because we needed that extra thing that Guus brings to get us that bit further. But that does not mean that the work of Farina, Arnold and others was not part of the picture.

There is much history and jealousy between Fozzie and Farina. Of course Farina has issues with Foster.

But he is still correct to call Foster out on this one. While Arnold is the national coach, we will expect our players to respect him and perform to their best for him and the country. By publicly undermining Arnold, Foster can only hurt the future performance of the squad.

It is one thing for fans to call for Arnold's head after one loss in pubs and forums around the country.

But Foster has a uniquely influential position, and he should be more careful how he uses it.

[traja47]

Farina carries baggage

[golazo]

Farkin' Farina you cunt. Years of pain we were put through with you as manager, let it go mate. And it's not like Fozzie said get rid of Arnie straight away, he just said this is evidence that we can't keep an Australian coach after the Asian cup.

A foreign coach would have never picked Skoko, you know why? because he wouldn't have been mates with them. You have to pick the best available players who are playing regulary in a starting 11.. Unless they are on Real Madrids bench or another club like that you should not pick someone like Josip Skoko