A full-time replacement for departed Socceroos coach Graham Arnold is set to be made before next month’s must-win World Cup qualifiers against China and Japan — but top candidate Kevin Muscat is reportedly already out of the running.
The former A-League winning coach and player was mooted among a trio of contenders to take the helm, but according to The Age, he isn’t interested.
The Age reports that Muscat rather holds ambitions of following the coaching trail blazed by Ange Postecoglou and leaping to Europe from his post in Asia.
Muscat’s named was mentioned as a possible target but he would have to be lured away from those ambitions, and his lucrative job as coach of Shanghai Port, who he has guided to the top of the Chinese Super League in his first season in charge.
Other names being floated included former Melbourne Victory and Western Sydney Wanderers boss Tony Popovic, Frenchman Herve Renard, who coached Saudi Arabia at the FIFA 2022 World Cup, Western United coach John Aloisi and former Central Coach boss Nick Montgomery, who is now Postecoglou’s assistant at Tottenham.
Football Australia chief executive James Johnson on Friday said he was confident of making an appointment in the “next week or two” to succeed 61-year-old Arnold, who, after six years in charge shocked the football fraternity by resigning on Friday.
It came in the aftermath of a poor start to the latest round of FIFA World Cup qualifiers and before the Socceroos go into camp for next month’s international window.
Johnson said FA had been prepared for a “tired” and “out of gas” Arnold’s decision and had already started the process of finding his replacement, with Australian and foreign candidates being considered.
“We are already in the market for a new coach,” Johnson said.
“We know the market, we know who’s available and I want to confirm that we will move quickly to appointing a permanent coach before the next window.”
Johnson said the Socceroos – who host China in Adelaide on October 10 before travelling to Saitama to meet Japan five days later – were in a different situation to the Matildas, who this week were given an interim replacement for previous coach Tony Gustavsson in Tom Sermanni.
“The Matildas are at the start of a cycle. We have time with the Matildas. We don’t have another competitive match until the women’s Asian Cup in 2026, so we want to make sure that we get the right person in at the right time,” he said.
“The Socceroos are mid-calendar. They are two games into 10 round three (qualifying) matches. We need to move quickly. We need to get into fifth gear.
“(The Socceroos) have a match in less than three weeks time (against China in Adelaide), so our plan is not to appoint an interim coach.
“Our plan is to go into the market and appoint a permanent coach, a coach that we believe shares our vision and will get the best out of this team going into the World Cup in 2026.
“We want a coach that’s tactically astute. We want a coach that understands the Australian mentality and understands our players. We want a coach that we have confidence in that can guide us through a complicated Asian qualifying process (for the World Cup).
“We’re very confident that we will go through. We’ve just got to get this appointment right.”
Discussion about this post