Graham Arnold is set to face a grilling from his bosses at Football Australia next week over the Socceroos’ horror September window, which has turned their next World Cup qualifier against China into a clash that could define his tenure as national team coach.
FA chief executive James Johnson threw his full support behind Arnold on Friday, but said it was up to him to appropriately diagnose and resolve the problems which caused last week’s shock 1-0 defeat to Bahrain on home soil and Tuesday night’s hollow 0-0 draw with Indonesia in Jakarta.
Arnold is being given a few days to “disconnect”, Johnson said, before reporting to FA’s new offices at the Sydney Cricket Ground to meet with the federation’s top brass – including head of national teams Gary Moretti, high-performance chief Andrew McKenzie and chief football officer Ernie Merrick – to review the two …