Fall of the near invincible man

So, apparently Graham Arnold is nearly invincible... Nearly.

During his reign as Australia manager he managed to take the side from the mid 30s in the world rankings to 108th!

The run that would finally get him sacked was a 20 match winless streak that lasted from the 12-10-2013 to 12-8-2015. This included 16 losses and a mere 4 draws, all of which were against teams below 100th in the world rankings. Not to mention the 5 and 8 match losing streaks!

His career figures at the helm look better at 7 wins, 6 draws and 22 losses, but still... How did he keep his job with a 2 year losing streak?

He even survived the Asian Cup after getting knocked out in the group stage with a group that included Japan, Singapour and Bahrain! It was a 4-0 home loss to Romania that sealed his fate!

Every time I've took over brazil they are always in the 30's ranking wise

So, I've decided to have a go at getting the Australia job now. As an Australian Manager of World Class reputation and the most successful Australian Manager of all time this should be easy eh?

Nah... They've given it to Harry Kewell. All respect to his playing career, but he's had one previous job Man City, where he lost all 9 games and then got sacked...

...after spending a cool £60 mil on players. Strangely enough one was called C. Hunt...

Go the realistic managerial appointments, go!

So, I've decided to have a go at getting the Australia job now. As an Australian Manager of World Class reputation and the most successful Australian Manager of all time this should be easy eh?

Nah... They've given it to Harry Kewell. All respect to his playing career, but he's had one previous job Man City, where he lost all 9 games and then got sacked...

...after spending a cool £60 mil on players. Strangely enough one was called C. Hunt...

Go the realistic managerial appointments, go!

lol and god bless. do we laugh or do we cry? oh, and will it make a difference? with a shaking head all i can say is

f m r t e

get real familiar with this dude, he´s a gonna be your best friend

Oh well, I might just update the progress of Australia under Harry on here for a while...

Let's see how he does!

Following 2 draws in Arnold's last 3 games Australia shot upto 101st for Harry's first month in charge, can he break the 100 barrier?

It does seem a little unusual.

Although some international managers do get the national job because of their standing as a player though without having had a distinguished managerial career - for example Jurgen Klinsmann and Diego Maradona (or Mike Bassett).

Australia always seem to do worse in fm than they do irl.

I think I'm going to try and come up with my own model of dynamical leagues at some point too, as I feel that SIs is too Euro-Centric.

I think I'm going to try and come up with my own model of dynamical leagues at some point too, as I feel that SIs is too Euro-Centric.

Rightly so, how long has the current A League been set up?

The MLS?

The H, J Leagues?

There is nothing to say these leagues will be there in 20 years time. It is very difficult to predict how these leagues will grow.

Australia always seem to do worse in fm than they do irl.

Australia have a core of top players who are around the 30 mark with very few younger players coming through. Over the next few years you'll see a lot retire maybe after 2014 World Cup and I would then expect them to struggle to stay at the same level until they rebuild the core of the team.

Rightly so, how long has the current A League been set up?

The MLS?

The H, J Leagues?

There is nothing to say these leagues will be there in 20 years time. It is very difficult to predict how these leagues will grow.

So the obvious solution is to gear the system to make them either completely fall on their faces are at the very best stagnate?

Awesome logic there!

Australia have a core of top players who are around the 30 mark with very few younger players coming through. Over the next few years you'll see a lot retire maybe after 2014 World Cup and I would then expect them to struggle to stay at the same level until they rebuild the core of the team.

Wicked fact checking there! The "core group" were:

Grella, Bresciano, Viduka, Kewell, Cahill, Neill, Emerton, Moore, Chipperfield, Schwarzer, Culina and Aloisi...

A bit of research will show you that Viduka, Moore, Chipperfield and Aloisi no longer player for the socceroos whilst Grella and Bresciano are indefinitely out of the Socceroos lineup. That leaves Emerton, Neill, Cahill, Culina, Kewell and Schwarzer of this "Core Group". As it currently stands Australia have a few very good young keepers ready to replace Schwarzer whenever he decides to hang up his boots, though that may still be a while. There are a lot of good young players breaking into the Australian scene too and as it stands the "Golden Generation" may well be overshadowed by 2014. But we'll see what happens.

Hmmm...

Wow!

So, Harry Kewell has been sacked as Australian manager after a stint that could be considered an improvement on Graham Arnolds.

Under Harry Australia shot up the World rankings from 108th to 85th. How you may ask? By two crucial World Cup dream saving wins over Kuwait and Tajikistan. His only two wins in management after some 24, matches... Awesome.

So why did this fine manager get sacked? He was given the task of getting Australian in the last qualifying round of the Asian World Cup Qualifiers... The group was:

Kuwait, Tajikistan and Syria. What a group eh? It all stated with a 0-0 draw to Tajikistan. It got better with a 4-1 home win over Kuwait, but a 2-0 loss to Syria didn't look so crash hot shortly after. The side recovered to record a 3-0 win over Tajikistan, but a loss to Kuwait (3-1 I might add) left Australia dangerously close to being knocked out the World Cup at the first hurdle. Australia only needed a draw against Syria to go through along side the mighty Kuwait.

So, how did this match go?

...well...

So Australia went 1-0 within 5 minutes thanks to Valeri. This was soon followed up by Leckie beasting a goal for himself with Troisi putting the cream on what was a dominant half time position. 3-0 up against Syria only needing a draw, what could possibly go wrong Harry (virtual Harry, the real Harry would probably make a great manager) you tactical mastermind? Well, in the 62nd minute they made it 3-1... Ooops! Oh well...

Still 3-1 up in the 88th minute it was all clear for Australia. But then 2 goals in 2 minutes put Australian back on the knife edge. Was it all going to go wrong for Australia...

Well... Not, because Luke DeVere promply broke the oppositions striker who had scored those goal's face, and he came off injured before Australia then buggered around for the few minutes of injury time. So Australia were safe through to the next round. That's more than you could say for Japan (who lost out in a group with with Iraq, Bahrain and North Korea, so a bit harder). However, despite this the FFA suddenly realised; "Hang on, why did we hire someone who had never won a competitive match when a manager who had a record that Sir Alex is jealous of applied at the same time" and promply sacked him and gave me the job.

Now... I've got to clean up what can only be described as a huge mess!

Not only that, but the two best young Aussies are now playing the the England U21s because Kewell ignored them! What a goit!