Urgency in Ange plans

Soccer boss hasn’t given up on keeping mentor

FOOTBALL Federation Australia boss David Gallop still hasn’t given up the prospect of Ange Postecoglou taking the Socceroos to the World Cup next year, despite the Australian coach dropping more hints that he is about to resign.

Promising a decision within a fortnight, Postecoglou offered another defence of his work with the team, adding to the expectation he will quit to pursue a club coaching role.

But Gallop said it was “hard to imagine” Postecoglou not being at the helm in Russia in eight months, although he said that there was a need to “get clarity quickly”.

Postecoglou will be expected to attend the World Cup draw in Moscow in a fortnight if he is still in post, but Gallop said he expected to have decided the situation by then.

“I expect we’ll sort it out reasonably quickly,” he said. “Let the dust settle for a few days then sit down and map it all out. It goes without saying it’s hard to imagine going to Russia without Ange, but we need to sit down and talk about where we’re at.”

Asked if a coach should need persuading to take his country to a World Cup, Gallop said: “I’m not sure that’s necessarily the case. The arrangement has always been the case that we’d get through the Honduras games and talk about it. It’ll be good to get clarity quickly.”

Postecoglou confirmed he’d meet Gallop and FFA chairman Steven Lowy in the coming days to talk about a future.

“We’ll deal with that over the next couple of weeks because it has to happen fairly quickly,” he said.

“I’m mindful of the fact that there’s a lot of planning that needs to keep moving forward.

“It’s not about me keeping people in suspense. We’ll have those discussions with David and Steven.”

Asked why he would consider not going to the World Cup, Postecoglou said it was “not an easy decision” but again seemed to speak of his tenure in the past tense.