Socceroos boss Graham Arnold leads charm offensive to get European clubs’ support for international duty
IT was a collective plan of attack as thought through as any setpiece the Socceroos will unleash in coming months, a charm offensive that traversed Europe and Asia with a place in Qatar the final goal.
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IT was a collective plan of attack as thought through as any setpiece the Socceroos will unleash in coming months, a charm offensive that traversed Europe and Asia with a place in Qatar the final goal.
For more than a month from early September, Socceroos boss Graham Arnold and his assistants drove and flew thousands of kilometres to visit the clubs of key players, building personal relationships with coaches and fitness staff and spelling out their plans for the coming three-and-a-half years.
With an Asian Cup to defend in January – right in the middle of the English season – and World Cup qualifiers beginning later next year for Qatar 2022, Arnold knows better than most how much pressure clubs can put on players bidding to travel round the world for their country.
“I don’t talk too much from my own career but I learned that from when I played,” Arnold said. “The clubs don’t make it that easy for the players, they make it sometimes a confrontation and you don’t want that.”
Which is why, after holding a training camp in September in Turkey, Arnold flew first to Scotland, to meet Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers and his Hearts counterpart Neil Lennon, to spell out his plans and the need for Socceroos staff to have access to performance and medical data as they track the fitness and wellbeing of players between international games.
As Arnold drove 500km south after that to Brighton, physio Phil Coles was driving across Germany, meeting medical staff at a succession of clubs to plan exchange of data, including video analysis of games, while conditioning coach Andrew Clark was heading for Japan on a similar mission.
By the time Arnold arrived in the UAE last week to start preparations for the friendly with Kuwait on Tuesday morning, he had seen around a dozen managers including Steve McClaren and Chris Hughton (as well as lunching with former Socceroos coach Bert van Marwijk).
“It was about communication between myself and the managers so if a player has an injury or there’s a problem, we can talk about it, instead of having a confrontation about it,” Arnold said.
“The way we dealt with Maty Ryan and Aaron Mooy (both withdrawn from the squad for the match against Kuwait) was fantastic. Chris Hughton rang me and spoke to me about Maty’s injury and we spoke about what was best for the player and what was good for Maty Ryan. Not what was good for Brighton or me or the Socceroos.
“Rodgers texts me nearly every day and says, ‘How are my boys going’. I’ve got contact with Mark van Bommel (at PSV). I’ve got contact with Steve McClaren at QPR. It’s just communication.
“A lot of them commented that I was the first national team manager they’ve seen watch training. It sounds crazy. It means also a lot for the players that I was making that effort to be there for them.
“You can then sit down with someone like John van ’t Schip at PEC Zwolle, and you can talk about the complications of travel for the players, that we need to check players before they go back (to the Socceroos), make sure they’re healthy and right.
“I’ve got all their phone numbers now. If we can take pressure away from the players in that way, it makes life easier.”
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