Why Ange must be sacked as Socceroos coach

Australia's Tim Cahill with coach Ange Postecoglou after Australia defeated Syria in their 2018 World Cup football qualifying match played in Sydney this week.

If the reports are true that Ange Postecoglou will walk away from the Socceroos at the end of the last stage qualifiers for the World Cup then Football Federation Australia have no option other than to terminate his contract now.

Whether by accident or design, Postecoglou has surely signed his own death warrant. The damage is done and whether it is irreparable rests in the hands of those in charge at Whitlam Square. His position is untenable.

The only option, as I see it, is that an interim coach is installed for the two home-and-away qualifiers against Honduras next month while FFA search for a permanent replacement to take Australia to the World Cup finals in Russia next year — if we make it.

Given the players will only have club football to contend with before going into camp for the Honduras game, either assistant coach Josep Gombau or Ante Milicic could fill the role or give it to Melbourne Victory’s Kevin Muscat or Sydney FC’s Graham Arnold, who can combine their club jobs with the national team duties.

And what of Postecoglou?

As much as he is on record saying he would move on after the World Cup, it beggars belief that he has now decided to quit after the qualifiers.

What does that say to the players and the fans, many of whom have always preached the “In Ange we trust” mantra?

Trust is a two-way street and he doesn’t seem to grasp that concept. How can he now look the players in the eye and tell them to play for their country, give their all and fight for the flag against Honduras when he is going to bail out after the qualifiers?

Australia's head coach Ange Postecoglou.

There are suggestions that the constant criticism has worn him down. I understand that the past 12 months or so have been tough for Postecoglou. He has come under tremendous scrutiny, more so since he decided to abandon his tried-and-tested formation for a new system halfway through the second phase of the World Cup qualifiers.

Postecoglou has always said he didn’t mind the critics expressing their opinions. He said he welcomed it. But, when it has come, he hasn’t liked it.

He has been cranky, moody, almost introspective at times. The body language has been telling and some of his press conferences — where even the most innocuous of questions has raised his hackles — have been eye-openers.

Ange Postecoglou has surely signed his own death warrant.

The fact is, the Socceroos have hardly played a decent game since the formation tweak. Importantly, there are suggestions he has lost some of the dressing room.

To be fair, this situation has probably been brewing since Postecoglou was forced to apologise for statements he made during the FFA-players union war over a new collective bargaining agreement a little over two years ago.

He was angry, and with good cause, claiming that it was affecting the Socceroos during the first stage of the World Cup qualifiers. However, he was forced by FFA to retract his statements the next day and suggest, “I could have tackled it differently” and that he was “talking out of frustration”.

From then on, the relationship between him and the heady body has not been as good as it should have been. Whatever the case, it is simple now. Postecoglou needs to make a definitive statement because the vague comments in FFA’s press release yesterday are fooling no one.

The game is already dealing with too many side issues that threaten to derail it and we don’t need another month of speculation, anger and mistrust ahead of one of the most important two-game series in recent Australian soccer history.