Arnold is a Socceroos legend, but he should have left two years ago

When they say a person is “part of the furniture” of a place, they’re talking about people like Graham Arnold. Few have given more of themselves, for longer, to the cause of Australian soccer than he has.

But like furniture, coaches go out of style. Things change, new trends emerge, and the world waits for no man.

Graham Arnold made the right call to depart the Socceroos.Credit: Getty

Arnold has chosen to leave on his own accord, but the writing was on the wall, and he arrived at the correct decision: he wasn’t the guy to get the Socceroos back on track.

And thus ends, quite simply, a legendary innings.

Arnold has been involved in every World Cup cycle for the Socceroos since 1986, either as a player, assistant coach, interim coach, or as an A-League coach whose club contributed players to the national team. That’s a long time. Possibly too long to be healthy for all concerned. The extent of his influence on the game is greater than what most realise.

That’s why it was time to go. The current playing group needs a fresh voice and fresh ideas. All of Australia’s national teams, in fact, need a hard reset.

Graham Arnold re-signed as Socceroos coach in January last year.Credit: Getty

But really, the right time to go was two years ago.

Hindsight is always 20-20, but anyone could see that the glorious afterglow of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was the perfect moment for Arnold to ride off into the sunset, his status as a national icon entrenched, his legacy unimpeachable, his stocks at record highs. He could have chased after the one thing missing from his stellar resume: success at club level overseas.

Football Australia should have seen it, too, and could have nabbed Kevin Muscat then and there. But instead, they offered Arnold another four-year contract out of fear that the optics of severing ties with him would not reflect well on them. Which is understandable.

But the signs have been there from almost the start of Arnold’s second reign as national team boss that he did not have the answers to the questions being posed to this team on the field. They first popped up at the 2019 Asian Cup, when his Socceroos were tasked with defending the title they won under Ange Postecoglou in 2015, and failed dismally.

They struggled to break down teams who defended in numbers and couldn’t turn overwhelming amounts of possession into meaningful chances, losing to Jordan, scraping past Uzbekistan on penalties before ultimately losing to the United Arab Emirates in the quarter-finals.

And that problem just never went away. It was the same for the most recent Asian Cup, played earlier this year, and for the last World Cup qualification campaign, and now this one.

The exception was those magical six months in 2022 when, from the brink of disaster, he masterminded one of the greatest sporting achievements in Australian history. Yes, it was that good. With their World Cup hopes on the line in a penalty shootout against Peru, Arnold made one of the boldest decisions a coach could make, subbing out captain Maty Ryan for the unheralded Andrew Redmayne. People thought he was certifiably insane, but it got them to Qatar.

Nobody thought they’d do much there, either, but they forgot about the circumstances in which Arnold does his best work: when he can create a siege mentality, an us-against-the-world attitude within his squad, which ties perfectly into the game model he relies upon, a tight, pragmatic, counter-attacking system where they don’t have to make the play themselves.

Graham Arnold reacts as the Socceroos are bundled out of the Asian Cup.Credit: Getty

Wins over Tunisia and Denmark make him and him alone - not Ange Postecoglou, not Guus Hiddink, not anyone else - Australia’s most successful World Cup manager. Nobody can take that away from him.

But expecting him to evolve the Socceroos’ style to a more nuanced, possession-based outfit after that was a bit like expecting a leopard to change its spots. Few coaches learn new tricks at 61.

When Australia lost to Bahrain on the Gold Coast a couple of weeks ago, people at FA began to hear the alarm bells for the first time. Criticism of his methods sharpened, even though what Arnold faced in that respect was nothing compared to his predecessors.

Had the Socceroos tanked in next month’s qualifiers, FA would have taken the decision out of his hands. Arnold must have made the calculation that he didn’t have the energy to go through the wringer again.

A clean slate is good for everyone. It’s good for the current players, some of whom had grown too comfortable under Arnold, and most of whom are playing beneath themselves.

It’s good for players like Massimo Luongo and Mitch Langerak, and a couple of others, who might reevaluate their personal exiles from the national team depending on who the new boss is. Both should arguably be first XI players.

It’s good for FA because - assuming they get their next decision right - it means the Socceroos can begin to move forward instead of spinning their wheels.

And it’s ultimately good for Arnold, too. He has given so much to the Australian game, and now it’s time for him to take a breather, reflect on his achievements, recharge his batteries, and embark on a new challenge.

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