How Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold revived his career to get to another A-League grand final

IT could be the biggest bombshell of grand final week — Sydney FC’s usually taciturn coach Graham Arnold has a sense of humour and likes to smile.

Graham Arnold said personal changes had to be made after last season.

IT could be the biggest bombshell of grand final week — Graham Arnold has a secret sense of humour and actually likes to smile.

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As the Sydney FC coach detailed the introspection that forced him to reappraise his coaching style after finishing seventh last season, he said had spent this campaign determined to show “the real me”.

Revealing he had taken counsel from a “coaching mentor” outside sport, Arnold said his team’s unprecedented success came after he stopped being “more of an actor than a coach”.

Graham Arnold said personal changes had to be made after last season.

Arnold was named coach of the year on Monday night and if Sydney win Sunday’s grand final, he will become the first coach to win the league with two clubs after his success with the Mariners in 2013.

It’s a stunning rebound from the trials of last season when his side missed the finals, though they did reach the knockout stages of the Asian Champions League. Arnold said it was a collective turnaround.

“When you have the people around you with the right intentions who you have a lot of faith and trust in, it works very well,” he said.

“It comes with experience, being more relaxed. But I just feel that last year I showed a lot of signs of not the real Graham Arnold.

“I showed publicly a person who was more of an actor than a coach and when I did go away and resurrect myself, I wanted to show people the real me — what I’m like away from football. I wanted to show that in my coach. Away from coaching I’ve actually got a decent sense of humour, I actually smile.

“Personally I had a real good hard look at myself. I wasn’t happy with my performance last year and the leadership that I have to give is something that rubs off on the team.

“I went away and came back with different ideas of what I need done. I need to thank two people now who have done a lot of work for me. A guy called Mike Conway who works with XVenture, he’s done a fantastic job in team building and bringing the team together and doing a lot of work with the players.

Graham Arnold is understandably loving life as Sydney FC coach.

“Another guy is Bradley Charles Stubbs who is more of a coaching mentor. When you are a coach you don’t get a rule book, you have to learn the hard way. He’s helped me with the Expect To Win program. I had to look at myself first and foremost, I did that and we move on.”

Arnold brings unprecedented grand final experience to Sunday’s occasion, having been involved in 2011 and 2013 with the Mariners, and two years ago with Sydney.

“I’ve always been someone who’s never happy with what I do,” he said.

“It’s the same as when I played, I was always very critical of myself. At the end of the day when things aren’t right and you lose a game I always question first and foremost myself and what I do, whether it was good enough or not.

“Last year seventh wasn’t good enough. Last 16 of Asia we can say was an achievement, but I’m pretty happy with this. It’s four grand finals in six years since I’ve been coaching in the A-League and it’s time to win another one.”