Apologise, Arnie - And Then Go
14 August 2008 12:21
By Kevin Airs
http://au.fourfourtwo.com/blogs.aspx?CIaBID=21
Not that I’m one to say I told you so... but, I told you so.
Graham Arnold’s Beijing campaign is over and so should be his career as head coach of a national team.
He thought he knew better than everyone else. He may have proved himself wrong in the end – but in the process, he destroyed the once in a lifetime Olympic dreams of a talented generation of Aussie stars.
That is unforgivable – and those youngsters deserve an apology from him.
He arrogantly dismissed Djite and Burns – who helped take the Olyroos to Beijing – and brought in token overage players and raw recruits without a thought for how they would fit in the team.
From the very day the squad was announced, the fate of the Olyroos was sealed. It’s not a reflection on the players he did take to Beijing with him – or those left behind. He had a surfeit of good players to choose from. And Ruben Zadkovich.
You can assemble great players in one team, but getting them to play well together takes time and good leadership. It takes time to build up partnerships. Once you have that, the last thing you want to do is upset it by chopping and changing.
Arnold had inherited an excellent squad from Rob Baan that had built up understandings in attack, midfield and defence. So much so that when they took on the Socceroos in an 11v11, 90 minute training match at Marconi Stadium, the Olyroos wiped the floor with them. As Pim and Arnie both said at the time, it was all down to the youngsters having spent so long playing together.
Instead of cashing in on that and taking an already polished final product, Arnie petulantly tried to stamp his own authority on the team and decided stars like Bruce Djite couldn’t cope with the heat.
Djite since proved that tosh to be utter bollocks at his new club. Every goal he scores in Turkey will haunt Arnie forever more.
Was taking Archie – already injured when the squad was announced and unable to train with his new team-mates – better than Bruce Djite? Would Nathan Burns really be a worse player than Nikita or Simon? Get a grip.
Did any of Arnie’s strikers even force a save during the three games? I don’t remember one.
Carney was worth his overage spot, but did we really need Jade North in a squad with seven defenders?
As it turned out, we did because Arnie’s tactical genius in the opening match was to play an 8-0-2 formation, with backs to the wall defending and, as I predicted, naive long balls to the front.
The fact that we had to rely on Ruben Zadkovich – a player who no-one I knew could remember his last good game at club or international level – for our only goal of the campaign speaks volumes.
In fairness to him, he played reasonably well. In fact, most of them did - under the circumstances. But the lack of understanding between players was toe-curlingly embarrassing.
Free kicks rebounding off the back of our own players, dummies to no-one, backheels to the opposition and one-twos that end at one- were hallmarks of a team that didn’t know each other well enough.
We did have a team that could do that sort of thing and do it properly...but Graham Arnold didn’t take that team with him. This was potentially a generation that could win us a medal – but Arnold’s poor squad choice and shocking tactics denied us that.
Arnie has no excuses this time. As Arnie’s most passionate and vociferous supporter reminded us in the Sydney Morning Herald last week, this was his squad, his tactics, his campaign.
His failure.
Arnie has a contract with the FFA until 2010. Given the publicity-conscious FFA chiefs, that won’t be terminated.
Instead the Olyroos setup will be rested until qualification looms again and the dust has settled and Arnold has faded into the background (or got a new job with a club elsewhere...if anyone will hire him now).
The Olyroos will finally re-emerge with a new head coach (and by then it might just be Gary van Egmond, warming up for Pim’s job...)
The only good thing to come out of this epic failure of a campaign is Arnold’s final farewell. By all means FFA, give him a job in the dressing room – just don’t let him have any influence any more please.
In the meantime, Arnie, do the boys a favour: Just say sorry. I’ll guarantee he doesn’t though
