Robbie Slater claims Mark Bosnich’s call on Graham Arnold is a personal attack

Robbie Slater has torn shreds off his former teammate and work colleague Mark Bosnich, questioning his comments on Socceroos coach Graham Arnold and his character.

My friendship with Graham Arnold isn’t a secret, but if the Socceroos fail to qualify for the World Cup, there’s no doubt he should be sacked as national team coach.

“Arnie” will tell you the same thing. He knows he’s gone if the Socceroos don’t make Qatar 2022.

However, calls this week from former Socceroos goalkeeper Mark Bosnich that Arnold should be axed if Australia don’t automatically qualify and are forced into sudden-death playoffs to make the World Cup are outrageous and wide of the mark.

The reality is that the Socceroos will almost certainly finish third in their group and be forced to qualify via the playoffs.

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Robbie Slater believes Mark Bosnich’s comments on Graham Arnold are outrageous. Pictire: Getty Images

That’s not saying they can’t beat Japan and Saudi Arabia in their remaining group matches, but it’s going to be an extremely tough task.

If we are forced to qualify via the playoffs, then so be it.

People, seemingly including Bosnich, forget that the Socceroos qualified for the last World Cup through the playoffs under then coach Ange Postecoglou after finishing third in their group.

Four years ago I sat on a panel with Bosnich and we were critical of some of Australia’s performances and tactics under Postecoglou.

But not once did we say that he should be sacked before the playoffs.

I have the same opinion about Arnie, but for whatever reason, Bosnich doesn’t want Arnie to have the same chance.

Bosnich has insisted it’s not a “personal attack” on Arnie, but given the difference in his approach when it was Postecoglou in the same position how could it be anything else?

Why he has got personal is dumbfounding, considering Arnie played a huge role in bringing Bosnich back to Australia after all of his well-documented problems in the UK.

It’s also surprising with how much passion Bosnich speaks about the national team these days because as a player when Arnie and I were his Socceroos teammates, he didn’t seem too interested in playing for Australia.

It’s one of the reasons why he only has 17 Socceroos caps.

A good example was our two-legged playoff against Argentina to qualify for the 1994 World Cup.

Bosnich played 17 matches for the Socceroos. Picture: Mark Evans

Bosnich played the first leg in Sydney where we drew 1-1 but didn’t fly to Buenos Aires for the second leg in a must-win game to qualify. Let’s just say that didn’t impress a lot of his national teammates and still doesn’t today.

Maybe Bosnich’s attack on Arnie is an indirect shot at me given that I haven’t heard from him since he left Fox Sports last year.

We used to speak to each other daily but since he moved to Stan Sport – where he works with people he didn’t seem to like a year ago ­– he has cut off all contact with me.

For me, that’s a character flaw but he has been letting people down for a very long time.