Socceroos coach Graham Arnold accused of favouritism in bombshell comments

Graham Arnold has been accused of favouring players from his former club in stinging comments made after Australia’s defeat against France.

Australian coach Graham Arnold was called out by Zeljko Kalac. (Photo by Jewel SAMAD / AFP)

Former Socceroos goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac has unloaded on the current team — and coach Graham Arnold — after Australia’s 4-1 defeat against France.

In a series of bombshell comments made at a live event for a betting agency, Kalac:

ACCUSED Arnold of favouring players from his former A-League club Central Coast Mariners;

DESCRIBED substitute striker Jason Cummings as “absolutely minging”; and,

DECLARED not a single member of the current Australian squad would make the team that appeared at the 2006 World Cup.

Kalac was asked why Scottish-born forward Cummings was brought on for Mitchell Duke in the 56th minute instead of Jamie Maclaren.

“Because he didn’t play for Central Coast Mariners,” the 49-year-old former shotstopper said.

“Coaches live and die by their decisions,” Kalac added. “If you’re looking for a goal … OK, you haven’t started with Jamie Maclaren, fair enough, (but) you’re making a sub, you’re losing 2-1, you want a goal — and you don’t bring in an absolute goalscorer? I just don’t get it.”

Australian coach Graham Arnold was called out by Zeljko Kalac. (Photo by Jewel SAMAD / AFP)

Zeljko Kalac did not hold back. Picture: Twitter

Arnold coached the Mariners from 2010 to 2013 before spending four years at Sydney FC and getting the national team job in 2018.

Kalac was savage in his opinion of the contribution of Cummings, who plays for the Mariners.

“He was minging, he was absolutely minging,” Kalac said. “The bets should have been … is he going to touch the ball more than three times? He was non-existent. We basically played with 10 men when he came on.”

But he was hardly any more complimentary of anyone else in the team.

“They did an amazing job just to qualify,” Kalac said. “I thought they were poor. The group of players is substandard for a national team, but that’s not their fault. They don’t play in the highest leagues, they don’t play week-in, week-out in good competitions to be at this level, but it is what we have at the moment.

Kalac questioned Arnold’s decision to bring on Jason Cummings. (Photo by François-Xavier MARIT / AFP)

“It’s easy to say this player should be in or this player should be in, but these are the players Arnie has picked that are playing at the best level they can.

“Would they get in the 2006 team? I don’t think there’s a player in this squad that would get in the 2006 side, that’s for sure.

“That 2006 side was special. We had 23 players in the squad and 18 played in the top five leagues in the world. Australia doesn’t have that anymore. We’ve got to strive to get back to that level. I’ve got my ideas but the geniuses running the game here have different ideas.”

Kalac did have a prescient moment before the match.

“We don’t want to see Australia score too early,” he said pre-match. “The longer the game goes 0-0 the more chance Australia has. If Australia scores an upset goal early it will just give everyone hope and it will liven France up and that’s what we don’t want.”