SOCCEROOS: COACH DECIDES HIS FUTURE THIS WEEK
A DECISION on whether Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou leads Australia to next year’s World Cup finals will be known this week after the national team coach brought forward the timeline for showdown talks on his future.
Postecoglou steered Australia to the World Cup finals with a 3-1 defeat of Honduras in Sydney last week.
In the aftermath of the win, he said he would discuss his position with FFA chairman Steven Lowy and chief executive David Gallop by the end of the month. Now, that is to be expected this week.
“It’s going to happen quickly . . . we’ll have those discussions this week and we’ll come to a resolution,” he said on ABC television program Offsiders yesterday.
Postecoglou said he was in two minds about continuing, saying his thoughts “fluctuated”.
“I can’t say that I’m locked to a position,” he said.
“There are things there, that for a whole range of reasons, some are fairly personal, some are private, some are just me as a person, and some are professional, that all need to be put into place. What’s going to be good for the team is also a consideration.”
Postecoglou was at his mercurial best on the panel show, hinting at the discomforts that have clouded his tenure without fully explaining them.
“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” he said of the 22match qualification pathway.
“The end bit is great and everyone rejoices in that but you think of the starting point and you kind of think of what you had to go through . . . particularly the difficult bits where doubt shrouds everything you do. I like the midnight shift. I like the hard stuff. And we’re getting to dawn and I don’t know, I get agitated. Maybe it’s an endless midnight shift that I’m looking for.”
Postecoglou said he felt burdened by his nationality through the process, worrying that failure could lead to future opportunities for Australians to coach the Socceroos drying up. He denied broken relationships with Gallop or Lowy, saying support from head office had been “100 per cent”.
In an interesting twist, Postecoglou offsider Ante Milicic was appointed Olyroos coach on Saturday. Milicic joined the Socceroos in 2014 and had remained by Postecoglou’s side since.
Milicic will remain with the national team set up irrespective of Postecoglou’s decision, and will lead the under-23 side at the Asian championships in China in January.