Graham Arnold is two victories away from achieving a special A-League record.
No coach has ever won A-League titles with two different clubs. Arnold, a grand final winner with Central Coast in 2013, now has that chance with Sydney FC.
Arnold’s Sky Blues play Perth Glory on Saturday for a berth in the grand final. Already Sydney FC have claimed the Premier’s Plate with an amazing history-making season where they lost just one game. Some have already called this side the best-ever in A-League history.
To go to different clubs and have success, like a Alex Ferguson or a Jose Mourinho, is not easy. After a disappointing 2015-2016 campaign, Arnold has rebuilt and re-energised his Sky Blues team with devastating affect.
It comes after his impressive three-year stint at the Mariners. From 2010 to 2013 Arnold led the competition’s smallest club with the smallest budget to a Premier’s Plate, two grand final appearances and one championship.
Apart from the haul of silverware at the Central Coast, one of the former Socceroo’s greatest strengths was his recruitment and man-management. The coach excelled in finding talented young players to develop and improve. He could also do the same with chiselled veterans, getting the best out of them.
Take the case of Daniel McBreen and Mat Ryan, both players under Arnold at the Mariners. McBreen had three years at the club with ‘Arnie’ as coach, culminating in a special 2012-2013 season where the striker won the Golden Boot award for most goals and the Joe Marston Medal, for the best player in the grand final. Despite being in his thirties, he bagged 19 goals in just 27 games.
McBreen, who played in Romania, Scotland, England, China, Hong Kong and Australia, says Arnold is the best coach he had in his long career. “He’s meticulous in the details tactically. He has great man-management, continually evolving.”
Ryan echoes McBreen’s sentiment. At Central Coast the goalkeeper was just a teenager but another who thrived under Arnold’s influence and has since gone on to become a lynchpin for the Australian national team, playing in the 2014 World Cup and winning the 2015 Asian Cup, and to a successful career in Europe.
Ryan describes the 53-year old as a “very hands-on, control-freak type of character”.
“Always wanting to make sure the players had the best environment in order to perform at their maximum potential, to the point where he sacrificed his life for football in order to create a ‘successful team’,” Ryan explains.
“He’d make sure the players are the absolute priority and that their needs are tended to in the best possible way. His ability to pass on his knowledge of the game to his playing group, once first, of course, having assembled a squad which he thought had all the characteristics to be a champion side and then his approach, methods and techniques in teaching the squad his opinion of the fundamentals to become champions.
“He was always involved personally in the off the field problems, like a few times not being paid on time by the club and him offering from his own pocket to pay some players who perhaps relied on the regular income to ultimately help them and in turn stress less to allow them to focus on football.”
McBreen and Ryan are just two players who have benefited from Arnold’s impact. Many have go on to international selection, including Trent Sainsbury, Alex Gersbach, Ryan Grant, Alex Wilkinson, Oliver Bozanic and Bernie Ibini.
Arnold has had his setbacks as a coach, including with the Socceroos in the 2007 Asian Cup and with Vegalta Sendai in Japan, but has bounced back and continued to evolve and improve. Committed, dedicated and passionate, he is a coach that players love to play for, who will go that extra mile for.
Is he the best coach to have graced the A-League in its short history? In nine days we may just find out.
