Farewell Arnie!

[Wakarahen]

Arnold has copped a lot of flak in recent months, particularly over his handling of the Socceroos in the Asian Cup. I think that in his final match (vs Argentina) he showed enough tactical nous to suggest that he will probably be a pretty decent coach in the future.

I think that we might also be thanking him for introducing a new generation of players to the team, rather than sitting back and resting on World Cup glory. A few of the new lads are now starting to shine, and the next boss (Dick Advocaat??) will have a pretty decent squad to work with.

It was a difficult job, being a 'temporary head coach'. Good luck in the future, Arnie!

[~zero_signal~]

Arnold was never going to have an easy job ahead of him, since he took over as head coach with the departure of Hiddink after a successful World Cup. I say 'successful' because the objective was to make the 2nd round, and therefore the objective was met. Things probably came undone during the Asian Cup, since many were expecting Australia to do a little better. I think that maybe people were a little too hard on Arnold. There were probably a number of reasons why things didn't really go according to plan. Still, it's best for Australia to have a foreign coach to keep developing the national team, which includes some of the new players coming in at the moment. Hopefully he can land a new role soon.

[SA_Villian]

Unfortunately, Arnie just doesn't have the flair and strategy knowledge to be an international coach, so it was always going to be short-term. In all honestly, he should never have been given the role in the first place - poor planning by FFA IMHO. As soon as Gus's contract expired, we should have had a new coach to take the helm for the Asian Cup.

The Asian cup is the major tournament in our region whether we like it or not, and the pathetic performance of Australia can only be blamed on the coaching staff. Sure the humidity was a factor, but with our player list at the time, we should have done better. A good coach would have made the difference.

Just my 2c worth ;)

[~zero_signal~]

Unfortunately, Arnie just doesn't have the flair and strategy knowledge to be an international coach, so it was always going to be short-term. In all honestly, he should never have been given the role in the first place - poor planning by FFA IMHO. As soon as Gus's contract expired, we should have had a new coach to take the helm for the Asian Cup.

The Asian cup is the major tournament in our region whether we like it or not, and the pathetic performance of Australia can only be blamed on the coaching staff. Sure the humidity was a factor, but with our player list at the time, we should have done better. A good coach would have made the difference.

Just my 2c worth ;)

It's true. Gus did say that he thought that Australia should keep Arnie as head coach for a while though, to see how things would unfold, because in his view, Arnie was an Aussie, he knew the team well, etc. I never really understood this. I think that Gus was just trying to be nice/polite. The bottom line is that Australia needs an experienced international coach and there aren't any here in Australia.