Robbie Slater: Socceroo players could follow Graham Arnold out exit door

Fans may have fallen out of love with Graham Arnold, but the players hadn’t. ROBBIE SLATER writes that the new Socceroos coach will need to mend bridges or risk them heading for the exit door too.

Graham Arnold built a strong bond with his players. Picture: Alex Grimm/Getty Images

Some of the fans might have fallen out of love with Graham Arnold – but the players didn’t and up to five of them could follow him out the door – adding to the new coach’s long list of challenges.

Hopefully this is an emotional reaction and a new coach can quickly talk them around.

Players’ reactions to Arnold’s unexpected decision to resign as Socceroos head coach speaks volumes.

Most of the team have shared thank you posts to the longest serving coach of the national men’s team.

When Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson was let go after the Olympics – not one player publicly thanked him.

Arnold had been in charge of the Socceroos for six years. It was a rollercoaster with some big highs and some almighty lows.

The players have a special relationship with him.

It was Arnold who discovered many of the players we rely heavily on now like Harry Souttar, Cameron Burgess and Martin Boyle.

Arnold personally backed many of the current Socceroos squad. Picture: Tom Dulat/Getty Images

A new coach will likely want to bring in different players, shake things up, play a different style of football – but his first challenge will likely be convincing players to stay.

With the Socceroos due to play China on October 10 and Japan five days later in two very important World Cup qualifiers the new coach will have to hit the ground running.

In all likelihood he will have one maybe two training sessions with the players before their Thursday night clash.

There is no time to experiment with new setups or personnel because they need the win.

With the speed at which Football Australia is moving to replace Arnold it seems likely they have been in discussions with this new coach for some time – likely since the quarterfinal loss at last year’s Asian Cup.

He will likely have a binder full of ideas but at the end of the day that coach is going to face the very same problems Arnold faced.

We are changing the coach – not adding a new Tim Cahill to the ranks.

Maybe the new coach could convince Massimo Luongo to come out of retirement – many feel he could be used in the midfield and that he left far too early.

But at the end of the day this coach has the same players Arnold had.

There is no time to wipe the board clean and start fresh.

We’ve got the players that we have. I have great respect for the players but as I’ve said time and time again now for years and years we’re not replacing the players and that’s going to be the new coach’s problem going forward.

Could the new coach entice Massimo Luongo out of retirement? Picture: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images

Where is he going to find new talent? Who’s that going to be? There’s not many that haven’t been involved.

The tight turn around, the playing roster and taking on a team coming off the disappointment of the last window is going to be a daunting task for whoever gets the job.

It is interesting to note that the last two coaches, Ange Postecoglou and Arnold have both resigned on their own accord.

Arnold’s resignation is a true end of an era that has been dominated by Postecoglou and Arnold for the past 16 years.

Going back to their club coaching where they were major rivals at two of the best teams in the country at the time – Brisbane Roar and Central Coast Mariners.

That cycle continued as both were contenders for the Socceroos job when Holger Osieck was sacked.

They went with Postecoglou who took us to a World Cup and then resigned and then of course Arnold came in.

For 15 years the landscape has been dominated by the duo – first at club level, now at an international level.

It really is the end of an era.

A new era begins – it is a passing of the baton – it will be up to the likes of Tony Popovic, Kevin Muscat and John Aloisi to create the next chapter.

Originally published as Robbie Slater: Socceroo players could follow Graham Arnold out exit door