Graham Arnold


Graham James Arnold is an Australian association football manager and former player. Arnold was appointed to work as an assistant coach of the Australian national football team in 2000. After head coach Frank Farina was sacked in 2005, Arnold worked with Guus Hiddink for the 2006 FIFA World Cup campaign, in which they made the second round of the finals. After Hiddink left, he became interim coach of the Socceroos. Arnold went on to Qualify the U23s for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Arnold then went on to assist Pim Verbeek for qualification of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Arnold went on take the manager role at A-League club the Central Coast Mariners between 2010 and 2013, where he guided the club to two premierships and a championship. He is a member of the Football Federation Australia Football Hall of Fame. Arnold went on to win two premierships, one championship and an FFA Cup with Sydney FC. In August 2018, Arnold was appointed head coach of the Socceroos.
Arnold holds a number of A-League records: he has managed the second most games of any manager in the A-League, he has achieved the second most wins in the competition's history, he has the best career winning percentage of any A-League manager, he has the best career unbeaten percentage of any A-League manager, and he is one of just three managers to have won multiple A-League championships. On 8 March 2018, it was announced that he will replace Bert van Marwijk as Australian coach after the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Personal life

Arnold Place in the Sydney suburb of Glenwood is named for him.
His daughter, Elissa Arnold, is currently the partner of Trent Sainsbury, a fellow Socceroo player.

Playing career

Club

Arnold was a striker who started his career at Gwawley Bay in 1969. He played for them and Sutherland representative teams concurrently until 1979 when he moved to Canterbury-Marrickville in the New South Wales Premier League. He then moved to Sydney Croatia in Australia's now defunct National Soccer League, where he was both the league's top goal scorer and player of the year in 1986. This was followed by a move overseas, where he made a name for himself in the Netherlands, playing for Roda JC Kerkrade and NAC Breda. He also spent time in Belgium with R.F.C. de Liège and R. Charleroi S.C.. He went on to play for Sanfrecce Hiroshima in Japan towards the end of his career, before finally returning home to play for the Northern Spirit FC.

International

Graham Arnold has represented Australia's senior national team 54 times, scoring 19 goals. He was given his full debut by Frank Arok in a World Cup Qualifier against Taiwan at Adelaide's Hindmarsh Stadium on 23 October 1985. He scored on his debut as the "Socceroos" went on to record a 7–0 victory. His international playing career came to a sad end on 29 November 1997 in a World Cup Qualifier against Iran at the MCG when the score ended 2–2 and Australia was eliminated on the away goals rule after leading 2–0.

Managerial career

Arnold had a cameo role as a coach very early on in his career. He was coach for 2 games while he was a player at Sydney Croatia during the 1989/90 season. However, his proper coaching career started in 1998, when he was appointed player/manager of the Northern Spirit FC. He was the coach for 2 seasons, making the playoffs in their debut season.

Australia

He was then appointed to the position of Australian assistant coach in 2000, becoming interim coach in July 2006.
On 6 September 2006 Australia was defeated 2–0 in an Asian Cup qualifying game against lowly-ranked Kuwait. The FFA confirmed Arnold would remain Head Coach through to the end of 2007 Asian Cup campaign.
Australia started their Asian Cup campaign drawing with Oman in its opening Group stage game in Bangkok. Media pressure focused on Arnold and on 13 July 2007 Australia were beaten 3–1 by the eventual winners Iraq in the 2007 Asian Cup. Australia went on to be beaten by Japan in penalty shootout in the Quarter Finals. Arnold then continued in the role as Manager of the Australian U-23 side, qualifying through to the 2008 Olympics.
He was also linked with the manager's position at Bolton Wanderers and Norwich City in England but lost out to Gary Megson and Glenn Roeder respectively. With the appointment of Dutchman Pim Verbeek as the Australian manager, Arnold along with Henk Duut served as his assistant to the national side during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Central Coast Mariners

On 9 February 2010, it was announced that Arnold will take on the position of head coach for the Central Coast Mariners until the end of the 2012/2013 season. At the conclusion of the 2011–12 A-League season he rejected a lucrative contract from Sydney FC and decided to stay on with the Mariners signing a one-year extension to his original contract with the club.
In the three years Arnold was in charge of the Mariners it resulted in three top 2 finishes, one premiership and winning one championship.

Vegalta Sendai

In the month of November 2013 Graham was a target for a few clubs in Asia, especially Vegalta Sendai in Japan's J1 League. Although interest again raised from the Australian Football Federation to make Graham the national team coach, he always wanted to stay in club football over the national team setup and within weeks agreed terms with Sendai to be the first Australian coach, since the late Eddie Thomson to coach at the highest level in Japanese football. Graham recruited his assistant from the Central Coast Mariners Andrew Clark to join him in Japan. On 9 April 2014, it was announced by Vegalta Sendai that Arnold had mutually terminated his contract after an winless 6-game streak endured by Sendai.

Sydney FC

2014–2015 season

Arnold was appointed as the new head coach of Sydney FC on 8 May 2014. In his first season with the Sky Blues, they were runners-up in the 2014–15 A-League season, finishing second behind Melbourne Victory, and losing the 2015 A-League Grand Final to them.

2015–2016 season

After the successful 2014–15 season, they saw an unsuccessful 2015–16 A-League season, finishing in 7th place and missing out on the Finals Series. He was, however, able to lead the team to a top place finish in Group H for their 2016 AFC Champions League campaign. They were eventually knocked out by Chinese team Shandong Luneng 3–3 on aggregate in the Round of 16.

2016–2017 season

Arnold started his revamp of the squad by releasing 13 players in the pre-season. To solve the teams goalscoring issues, he bought in Brazilian striker Bobô as their new marquee to play alongside former teammate Filip Hološko under the new 2 marquee rule. In addition to this, he also brought in 5 Australian players, including Bernie Ibini on loan, Socceroo Alex Wilkinson and Danny Vukovic from rival club Melbourne Victory. The season started off with a bang, with Sydney FC defeating their rivals Western Sydney Wanderers 4–0 in round 1. He led the team to a runners-up finish after being defeated 1–0 in the FFA Cup Final by Melbourne City.
Into the January transfer window, fan favourite Matthew Jurman joined K-League club Suwon Samsung Bluewings, while keeper Vedran Janjetović swapped with Andrew Redmayne to cross city rivals, Western Sydney Wanderers after a dispute about not playing after being displaced by Vukovic. To replace Jurman, Dutch defender Jordy Buijs signed. The team was able to go on undefeated for 19 games in the league before eventually being defeated 1–0 in a controversial game against the Wanderers. This defeat only made the team stronger, as they went the remainder of the season undefeated, gaining 19 points out of a possible 21 for the remaining 7 games. His team was eventually crowned premiers after Melbourne Victory was unable to defeat Brisbane Roar, while Sydney had 4 games remaining. Arnold's 3rd season with Sydney proved fruitful, in addition to winning the premiership, the squad had broken multiple records, including the most points in a single season, breaking Brisbane Roar's 2010–11 season of 65 points in 3 fewer games with 66 points, as well as being the only top-flight football team in Australia to stay outright 1st throughout the whole season. Arnold was also named Coach of the Year at the Dolan Warren Gala Night. He ended the season with a 1–1 in the Grand Final, winning 4–2 on penalties against Melbourne Victory, becoming the first manager to win the championship with more than one club. Arnold went on to win the 2017-2018 Premiership, becoming the first coach in A League history to win back to back Premierships

Return to the Australian national team

On 8 March 2018, after a vigorous search, it was announced that he would replace Bert van Marwijk as Australian coach after the 2018 FIFA World Cup following his notable success with A-League club Sydney FC, as well as also taking charge of the Olyroos. Almost immediately after Australia's uninspired performance at the tournament reached its climax, Arnold officially took the reigns in the box seat of the national team. He opened his account strongly, with his team executing a comprehensive 4–0 win away to Kuwait national football team. In November 2018, Arnold's men were given their first genuine test of what was proclaimed by Australian media as the 'new era' of the Socceroos, drawing 1–1 against rivals South Korea in front of 32,922 fans at Brisbane's Lang Park in a friendly on 18 November 2018. In the day prior to the match, Arnold announced that Socceroos veteran Mark Milligan would be appointed captain for an indefinite period.

Club statistics

National team statistics

International goals

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Club

;Central Coast Mariners
;Sydney FC