Graham Arnold

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For the British Brotherhood of Ruralists artist, see Graham Arnold (artist).

Graham Arnold
Graham Arnold-Mariners.jpg
Personal information
Full name Graham James Arnold
Date of birth (1963-08-03) 3 August 1963 (age 58)
Place of birth Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Height 1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s) Forward
Club information
Current team

Australia (Manager)

Australia U23 (Manager)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1980–1981 Canterbury-Marrickville
1982–1990 Sydney United 178 (68)
1990–1992 Roda JC 61 (22)
1992–1994 Liège 60 (23)
1994–1995 Charleroi 16 (1)
1995–1997 NAC Breda 63 (35)
1997–1998 Sanfrecce Hiroshima 28 (7)
1998–2000 Northern Spirit 47 (5)
Total 453 (161)
National team
1985 Australia B 2 (1)
1985–1997 Australia 54 (19)
Teams managed
1989–1990 Sydney United
1998–2000 Northern Spirit
2000–2006 Australia (assistant)
2006–2007 Australia (caretaker)
2007–2008 Australia U23
2008–2010 Australia (assistant)
2010–2013 Central Coast Mariners
2014 Vegalta Sendai
2014–2018 Sydney FC
2018– Australia
2018–2021 Australia U23
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Graham James Arnold (born 3 August 1963) 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.[1] 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 (205), he has achieved the second most wins in the competition's history (111), he has the best career winning percentage of any A-League manager (54.2%), he has the best career unbeaten percentage of any A-League manager (81.5%), and he is one of just three managers to have won multiple A-League championships.[2] In 2018 he replaced Bert van Marwijk as Australian coach after the 2018 FIFA World Cup.[3]

Personal life[]

Arnold Place in the Sydney suburb of Glenwood is named for him.[4]

His daughter, Elissa Arnold, is currently the partner of Trent Sainsbury, a fellow Socceroo player.[5]

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 (85 caps, 33 goals including unofficial matches and "B" internationals). 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[]

Arnold (right) in 2007

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.[6][7] 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.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10]

Sydney FC[]

2014–2015 season[]

Arnold was appointed as the new head coach of Sydney FC on 8 May 2014.[11] 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 (two whom have worked with Arnold at the Central Coast) 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[]

Arnold managing Australia at 2019 AFC Asian Cup

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,[3] 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. On the day prior to the match, Arnold announced that Socceroos veteran Mark Milligan would be appointed captain for an indefinite period.

His first tournament on his second stint was the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, where Australia, as the defending champions, crashed out in the quarter-finals, where his team began with a shock 0–1 defeat to Jordan before ending the campaign with the same scoreline, this time to the hosts on the same stadium, thus suffered criticisms for the team's poor form in the tournament.[12] Despite criticisms remaining, he was able to guide the Olyroos to a third-place finish in 2020 AFC U-23 Championship, thus qualified for the Summer Olympics since 2008 (delayed a year due to COVID-19 pandemic), as well as achieving for the first-time ever a straight eight wins in the second round of 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers to reach the third round.[13][14]

Club statistics[]

[15]

Club performance League
Season Club League Apps Goals
Australia League
1985 Sydney Croatia National Soccer League 28 11
1986 25 12
1987 24 17
1988 23 7
1989 27 10
1989/90 26 6
Netherlands League
1990/91 Roda Eredivisie 28 8
1991/92 33 14
Belgium League
1992/93 Liège First Division 32 16
1993/94 28 7
1994/95 Charleroi First Division 16 1
Netherlands League
1994/95 NAC Breda Eredivisie 15 10
1995/96 30 16
1996/97 18 9
Japan League
1997 Sanfrecce Hiroshima J1 League 18 6
1998 10 1
Australia League
1998/99 Northern Spirit National Soccer League 28 5
1999/00 6 0
2000/01 13 0
Country Australia 200 68
Netherlands 124 57
Belgium 76 24
Japan 28 7
Total 428 156

National team statistics[]

Australia national team
Year Apps Goals
1985 2 1
1986 6 4
1987 6 3
1988 16 4
1989 4 2
1990 0 0
1991 2 0
1992 0 0
1993 6 1
1994 0 0
1995 2 1
1996 3 0
1997 7 3
Total 54 19

International goals[]

# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 4 August 1985 St George Stadium Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Red Star Belgrade 4–1 4–1 Friendly Game
2 9 August 1985 Hindmarsh Stadium Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Red Star Belgrade 1–4 1–4 Friendly Game
3 11 August 1985 Olympic Park Stadium Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Red Star Belgrade 4–0 4–0 Friendly Game
4 25 September 1985 St George Stadium  China PR 1–1 1–1 Friendly Game
5 23 October 1985 Hindmarsh Stadium  Chinese Taipei 6–0 7–0 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)
6 3 August 1986 Olympic Park Stadium  Czechoslovakia 1–1 1–1 Friendly Game
7 25 October 1986 Mount Smart Stadium  New Zealand 0–1 1–1
8 2 November 1986 Parramatta Stadium  New Zealand 1–0 2–0
9 23 November 1986 Canton, China  China PR 0–2 0–2
10 11 June 1987 , South Korea  Chile 0–2 0–2 Korea Cup
11 15 June 1987 Suwon, South Korea  South Korea 0–4 0–5 Korea Cup
12 21 June 1987 Seoul Olympic Stadium  South Korea 1–1 1–1 Korea Cup
13 15 November 1987 Taipei, Taiwan  Taiwan 0–1 0–3 Friendly Game
14 15 November 1987 Taipei, Taiwan  Taiwan 0–2 0–3 Friendly Game
15 3 February 1988 Olympic Park Stadium Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia GNK Dinamo Zagreb 1–1 1–1 Friendly Game
16 26 February 1988 Bruce Stadium  Taiwan 1–0 3–0
17 26 February 1988 Bruce Stadium  Taiwan 2–0 3–0
18 27 March 1988 Eden Park  Taiwan 0–1 0–3
19 3 December 1988  Fiji 4–0 5–1 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)
20 22 February 1989 Parramatta Stadium Sweden Malmö FF 1–0 3–0 Friendly Game
21 12 March 1989 Sydney Football Stadium  New Zealand 2–0 4–1 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)
22 12 March 1989 Sydney Football Stadium  New Zealand 3–0 4–1 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)
23 2 February 1990 Olympic Park Stadium Soviet Union FC Torpedo Moscow 2–0 3–0 Friendly Game
24 2 February 1990 Olympic Park Stadium Soviet Union FC Torpedo Moscow 3–0 3–0 Friendly Game
25 10 June 1991 Taegu, South Korea  United States 2–2 2–4 Friendly Game
26 12 June 1991 Pohang, South Korea  South Korea 0–1 0–2 Friendly Game
27 26 February 1993 , Netherlands Netherlands Vitesse Arnhem 0–1 0–1 Friendly Game
28 16 July 1993 , Germany Germany MSV Duisburg 0–1 0–1 Friendly Game
29 30 May 1993 Auckland, New Zealand  New Zealand 0–1 0–1 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)
30 18 June 1995 Sydney Football Stadium  Ghana 2–0 2–1 Friendly Game
31 13 June 1997 Parramatta Stadium  Tahiti 4–0 5–0 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)
32 17 June 1997 Parramatta Stadium  Solomon Islands 2–0 6–2 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)
33 6 July 1997 Parramatta Stadium  New Zealand 2–0 2–0 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)

Managerial statistics[]

As of match played 7 September 2021[16]
Team Nat From To Record
G W D L Win %
Australia Australia 21 July 2006 6 December 2007 15 6 4 5 040.00
Central Coast Mariners Australia 1 June 2010 14 November 2013 114 55 30 29 048.25
Vegalta Sendai[17] Japan 1 February 2014 9 April 2014 8 0 3 5 000.00
Sydney FC Australia 8 May 2014 14 July 2018 142 81 34 27 057.04
Australia U23 Australia 16 July 2018 Present 9 5 3 1 055.56
Australia Australia 16 July 2018 Present 20 15 2 3 075.00
Total 307 159 75 73 051.79

Honours[]

Player

  • NSW Player of the Year: 1985
  • National Soccer League Player of the Year: 1986
  • National Soccer League Golden Boot: 1986
  • Football Hall of Champions: 2004

Manager[]

Club[]

Central Coast Mariners
  • A-League Premiership: 2011–12
  • A-League Championship: 2013
Sydney FC
  • A-League Premiership: 2016–17, 2017–18
  • A-League Championship: 2017
  • FFA Cup Winners: 2017[18]

Individual[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Coaches proud of team's achievements". Football Federation Australia. 27 June 2006. Archived from the original on 29 August 2006.
  2. ^ Weiner, David (8 March 2018). "Graham Arnold gets Socceroos job after World Cup, with Asian Cup redemption his first task". Fox Sports Australia. News Corp. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b "Arnold named Van Marwijk's eventual successor". FIFA.com. 8 March 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  4. ^ O'Maley, Christine (20 January 2010). "Park is a goner". Blacktown Advocate. Cumberland Newspapers. p. 14. ...streets are named after well known football identities...
  5. ^ Micallef, Philip (11 February 2017). "Exclusive: Sainsbury confident of keeping Socceroos spot". The World Game. Special Broadcasting Service. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  6. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 28 February 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2010.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. ^ Graham Arnold deserves to be given a chance, The Roar, Retrieved on 19 February 2010.
  8. ^ http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/239042,arnie-ill-be-back.aspx
  9. ^ "Mariners appoint Moss as Arnold joins J-League - Goal.com". www.goal.com.
  10. ^ "Was Graham Arnold doomed from the start at Vegalta Sendai? - Goal.com". www.goal.com.
  11. ^ Lutz, Tom (8 May 2014). "Sydney FC appoint Graham Arnold as new coach". The Guardian.
  12. ^ https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jan/28/socceroos-asian-cup-campaign-a-disappointment-at-best
  13. ^ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-26/olyroos-qualify-for-tokyo-2020-olympics/11901476
  14. ^ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-16/socceroos-world-cup-qualifier-vs-jordan/100216162
  15. ^ Graham Arnold at National-Football-Teams.com
  16. ^ "Graham Arnold". ALeague Stats. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  17. ^ J.League Data Site(in Japanese)
  18. ^ "Sydney FC vs Adelaide United, FFA Cup, Cup Final, 21st Nov 2017". FFA Cup.

External links[]

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