Mention Graham Arnold’s name to one of the Socceroos players in camp in Qatar and they perk up instantly. Terms like ‘father figure’, ‘cultural architect’ and even ‘friend’ sometimes follow.
There can be some prickly questions when players are wheeled out daily to the Australian and international media but talking about the man they call ‘Arnie’ comes easy.
Despite guiding an Australian team to a fifth World Cup under the toughest of circumstances, Arnold remains a polarising figure. Rightly or wrongly, his second tenure as Socceroos coach will be defined by what happens in Qatar in the coming weeks.
But the right man for the job or not, one thing is clear – his players love playing for him and it’s the culmination of the 59-year-old’s evolution from grumpy imposter to father of a youthful Australian squad.
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Arnold cut his international coaching teeth under Guus Hiddink, a man he greatly admired – and, in his own words, tried to become when he was appointed interim Socceroos coach in 2006 and oversaw the ill-fated 2007 Asian Cup campaign.
But it wasn’t the real Arnie, and it’s taken more than a decade for Arnold to find himself.
“From 2007 to 2012, I was an actor and I changed into a coach,” Arnold told foxsports.com.au.
“And I think I’ve gotten even worse now. I think I’ve now gone from a coach to a father.
“I’m still hard when I need to be hard and I’m still set in my ways. But because of Covid, I’ve learned to communicate much more because it wasn’t just a matter of picking the player and the player turning up. You needed to be much more supportive to the player.
“My principles, my philosophy of coaching are still there in terms of the way we want to play and all that and the culture side. But on the management side, I think Covid has really helped me.”
Arnold has spoken about personal challenges he faced during Australia’s gruelling qualification campaign held amid the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. He contracted the disease twice in two months, finding himself stuck in isolation during key camps.
Scarred by the experience he prefers not to keep talking about it, but he believes the experience did fast-track his man management skills.
The biggest change? Investing as much in the person as the footballer. And backing up tough decisions with tough conversations.
After Arnold and his Socceroos assistants decided on his 26-man World Cup squad for Qatar, he spent days contacting many of the players who’d missed out, before speaking to the ones who hadn’t.
It doesn’t happen that way often in the brutal world of international football, and it likely wouldn’t have gone down that way earlier in Arnold’s career.
“Pim Verbeek was probably the first one that showed me a little bit of that,” Arnold said of the late Socceroos manager he worked under after Hiddink. Verbeek tragically died of cancer in 2019.
“Probably when I went to the A-League, I was still 75-25, the old way.
“But then gradually as I’ve gotten older I’ve changed. There’s still that mongrel in me when I need it. And I’m prepared to make tough decisions and hard decisions.
“But I feel good in myself that if I make a hard decision, I communicate it to that person. A lot of coaches will make a hard decision, not speak to the player or person and then it causes friction.
“So if I’m going to be prepared to make the hard decision then I’ve got to tell him why, and we can talk about it. Before I wouldn’t have done that.”
Defender Bailey Wright is a prime example of a player who has been in and out of the Socceroos squad. But he’s always known where he stood.
“I’ve been a little bit in and out of the journey but I’ve always felt a part of it,” Wright said.
“And I guess that’s just through communication and contact from Arnie and belief in me regardless if I was selected or not or on the bench or not.
“I feel the togetherness, not only from players but from staff and Arnie, he’s been the cultural architect of that, the link of the group that’s really inspired everyone and driven his vision and really I guess been there for everyone.”
The highs and lows this group has experienced together transcends football. Arnold was the man who had to tell winger Awer Mabil his sister had been tragically killed in a car accident only hours after the Socceroos had exited the 2019 Asian Cup in UAE .
“It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” he told the Football from A to Z podcast.
Defender Joel King, one of the players Arnold helped develop in his dual role as Olyroos coach, feels a genuine bond and hates to hear the outside noise that’s often critical towards the coach.
“He’s almost like a father figure to me. To hear bad words said about him sometimes it’s not good to hear,” King said.
“He’s done a lot for me and he’s very approachable. Always talking to me individually and giving me confidence … those individual chats, I think that’s one of his best traits.”
Right back Fran Karacic, who has played under some hard-nosed figures in Italy, adds: “with (Arnold), it’s easy.”
“He’s our friend from the beginning so you can speak with him about your private life, problems also. He’s here to help us to be better players but also better people in the end.
“…. I have had coaches before that are just professional. You speak with them when they want to speak with you. This (relationship with Arnold) is something different.”
There’s every chance this will be the last weeks of Arnold’s tenure. There is no extension offer on the table from Football Australia and no urgency from his side to think about what’s next after four long, hard years.
“After the last kick of the ball I’m free for the first time in four and a half years,” Arnold said.
“I’m free to do whatever I want and we’ll see where that lands.
“For what’s next for me, that’s for after the World Cup. Now it is about Qatar.
“You can see these kids coming through, the next generation, which is important.
“I just want to make sure that I’m there now to help the boys achieve their goals, fulfil their dreams and get the best out of them.”
