Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou likely to quit and miss 2018 World Cup

ANGE Postecoglou gave his strongest hint yet that he will walk away from the Socceroos but FFA boss David Gallop hasn’t given up hope of him being at the 2018 World Cup.

Ange Postecoglou says his future as Socceroos coach will be resolved within two weeks.

ANGE Postecoglou gave his strongest hint yet that he will walk away from the chance to lead the Socceroos at the 2018 World Cup.

Postecoglou is expected to quit and pursue overseas options, unless Football Federation Australia overlords Steven Lowy and David Gallop can convince him otherwise when they hold decisive talks next week.

Gallop still hasn’t given up the prospect of Postecoglou taking the Socceroos to the World Cup next year.

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Promising a decision within a fortnight, Postecoglou offered another defence of his work with the team, adding to the expectation that he will quit to pursue a club coaching role.

Postecoglou confirmed he would meet Gallop and Lowy in the coming days to thrash out his future.

“We’ll deal with that over the next couple of weeks because it has to happen fairly quickly,” he said.

“I’m mindful of the fact that there’s a lot of planning that needs to keep moving forward. It’s not about me keeping people in suspense - we’ll have those discussuions with David and Steven and it’ll all be resolved.

“I’ve had support all the way along, I’ve just not conveyed that. I’ve always felt well supported by the general public. I’ve loved every minute of this job, the greatest honour of my career.”

Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou at a public reception for the team in Sydney on Thursday.

But Gallop said it was “hard to imagine” Postecoglou not being at the helm in Russia in eight months, although he said that there was a need to “get clarity quickly”.

Postecoglou will be expected to attend the World Cup draw in Moscow in a fortnight if he is still in post, but Gallop said he expected to have decided the situation by then.

“I expect we’ll sort it out reasonably quickly,” he said.

“Let the dust settle for a few days then sit down and map it all out. It goes without saying it’s hard to imagine going to Russia without Ange, but we need to sit down and talk about where we’re at.”

Asked if a coach should need persuading to take his country to a World Cup, Gallop said: “I’m not sure that’s necessarily the case. The arrangement has always been the case that we’d get through the Honduras games and talk about it. It’ll be good to get clarity quickly.”

Asked why he would consider not going to the World Cup, having overseen the toughest-ever qualifying route, Postecoglou said it was “not an easy decision” but again seemed to speak of his tenure in the past tense.

“Maybe it’s the hard parts that appeal to me,” he said.

“I still think there’s still plenty to do but I was really proud of our football last night. We said we’d play in a certain way and there was evidence of that all over the place. We were resilient, we scored, we wanted a second, we wanted a third.

“That’s been our mantra all along. we’ve played in some tough places where people told us we’d have to be pragmatic. The reason we did all that was so that in a crunch game like last night, it’s in the players’ DNA now. That’s the way they want to play.

“It’s not an easy decision and everything is taken into account. But I’ll have those discussions with the right people and it’ll all get resolved. Nothing will detract from what I’ve experienced the past four years, it’s been an amazing ride.”

Clouding the issue of Postecoglou’s future is that FIFA has threatened to remove Lowy and the FFA board if governance reform is not resolved by November 30.

Postecoglou will decide his future before then. FIFA hosts the World Cup draw on December 1 in Moscow.

Jedinak paid tribute to Postecoglou, but was none the wiser on the coach’s plans.

“Don’t know to be honest,” Jedinak said.

“Until I’m told otherwise he is our manager.”

Gallop confirmed that FFA would be keen to investigate any interest Italy might have in playing here, after their sensational elimination from the World Cup.

“We have been having discussions with our match agents but it’s obviously been very difficult to lock anything down until we had clarity over qualifying,’’ Gallop said.

“Potentially we’d love to talk to a country like Italy, there’s plenty to be attracted to in such a highly successful and well-supported team as possible opponents.”