Former Central Coast Mariners boss Graham Arnold talks candidly with Robbie Slater ahead of new job Graham Arnold sits down for a candid chat with Robbie Slater. FOX Sports football expert Robbie Slater catches up with his old mate Graham Arnold before the former Central Coast Mariners coach departs for his new challenge in Japan. ROBBIE SLATER: Mate, 10 days basically until you leave, just explain to us how this deal came about and the challenge ahead. GRAHAM ARNOLD: I don't think it's any secret I always wanted to test myself overseas. Probably the timing wasn't the best because it came five rounds into the competition. I was close to going in the off-season after the grand final win; I had some interest then, but that didn't eventuate. Pretty much it came through the fact an agent I met with Guus Hiddink a number of years ago remembered who I was and had been watching me closely over the last couple of years - and the coach who was (at Vegalta Sendai) for seven years got appointed to the Japanese Olympic team. They knew that was going to happen for 12 months and were looking for a coach and they were watching me in the Asian Champions League and A-League. Pretty much after the Brisbane game I got a phone call and was asked by the agent if I was keen to go work in the J-League. How much do you know about Sendai? I didn't play against them when I was over there in 1977 and 78, they weren't in J1. I didn't know much about the city so I flew over there for a week and had a look around. The city has been hit by the devastation of the tsunami. It's about an hour drive up the road, they took me to the tsunami site. That attracted me more to the job more than anything because it's for the community together, for the city together. They have the passion now to jell together as a community to get behind the football team. Every game is sold out, a full house of 20,000, the training facilities are fantastic. The people I met were kind and wonderful to me. And the J-League is the Premier League of Asia, so it's going to be a massive challenge. The Mariners were always seen as a family club. It started with Lawrie McKinna and then you had stunning success. What memories will you take with you to Japan? It was an easy club to come to because Lawrie had done such a fantastic job setting up the culture of the club with a no dickhead policy. It was a privilege to work with this club and such an enjoyable time. It was a beautiful club to work for, beautiful people and they have a great place in the community up there. It is regularly talked about whether this club should move down to North Sydney, I think it would just kill the club off completely. At the end of the day, the Central Coast Mariners belong on the Central Coast. They play at a wonderful stadium at Bluetongue. People talk about crowds, but, you know, there's a population up here of 250,000 and if you can average 10,000 a game you are doing great. Compare it to Sydney with a population of 4 million and Sydney FC are getting 18,000. Michael McGlinchey will join Graham Arnold in Japan. The club was struggling to pay players, there was even talk you paid for the petrol for the lawnmower to cut the grass. How did you get through that, keep the players together and still go on and win the grand final? I had to do one of two things - the players and myself could feel sorry for ourselves about not getting paid or use it as motivation. I was confident at that stage it was going to be Western Sydney Wanderers. I needed to take the focus off the game and make Western Sydney the enemy because they were owned by the FFA. I was happy to lend players money to get them through. There were players unable to pay their mortgages when they put food on the table for their families. So I had to paint the picture that Western Sydney Wanderers were our enemy. The fact FFA owned them and were paying them, but they wouldn't come forward and pay us in difficult times was an extremely difficult thing to take. The fact that we sold $4.5 million worth of players in that time and FFA took $1 million out of those transfers and still wouldn't provide for us was difficult to understand. I used that as a centre point of our focus and it was us against them. It was us against the head organisation, it wasn't us against the Western Sydney Wanderers. Tony Popovic and their supporters have done wonderful things for the game here in Australia and will continue to do so, but I had to try to motivate us and use it as a way to win a grand final. I know there was Eddie Thomson, who we know well as coach of the Socceroos. But you are the first Australian-born coach to go into a big league. You must be excited by that. People say this could be a trailblazing thing where you did it as a player and now you're doing it as a coach. Graham Arnold is always looking for a challenge. I've always been someone who has wanted to challenge myself and do it the tough way at times. I've learnt a lot of lessons the hard way when coaching the national teams. After what I've done in three years at the Central Coast Mariners I just felt I needed a new challenge and the timing was perfect. My ambition and motivation is hopefully not only do well for myself but put Australian coaches on the map and show a lot of people in Asia that there are a lot of good Australian coaches. If I can do well and can help Tony Popovic's next move, be it Japan, or Aurelio Vidmar when he finishes with the national team, or other Australian coaches, that would make me feel proud. You've signed Michael McGlinchey and the well-respected fitness coach Andrew Clark from the Mariners. Is there anyone else on the radar, not necessarily from the Mariners but Australian players? Not at this stage. The J-League is a massive step up from the A-League, and that is not being disrespectful in any way. Mikey, you know ... the Mariners' way is giving people an opportunity. I worked at the club for three years and didn't stand in anyone's way. Andrew Clark had a clause in his contract, like all the staff and players do, that if they can better themselves they can move on. It was important that I took someone with me to Sendai. Andrew Clark has done a wonderful job with the Mariners, he's been there nine years. If I didn't take him with me, there's a chance we could have lost him to AFL. There's a lot of talk about Tommy Rogic. You gave him his chance at the Mariners, he's earmarked for Socceroos stardom, but he's not playing at Celtic. Is there any possibility of getting him to Sendai? I'd love have to Tommy there, but first and foremost Tommy is a Celtic player and Tommy needs to play football. I spoke to Tommy personally on three or four occasions over the past two months and Ange (Postecoglou) has made it clear if Tommy's not playing, he's not going to go (to the World Cup). If you look at Tommy, he left the Mariners this time last year and in that time he's played 14 games and that is nowhere near enough football for a kid. Central Coast's young gun with its captain courageous. Did you want Tommy to go? Did you think it was a good destination for him? I didn't want any player to leave the Mariners. But it was the philosophy of the club and we needed it for the club to survive at the time. Tommy's transfer fee let the club survive for another couple of months. I didn't see it as a bad move because it is a big club and if Tommy could have got in and had a better chance to start, and Celtic, being as dominant as they are in the Scottish league, I thought he would have done very well. I still think he will. If you look at Tommy over all, and I'm a huge fan, he played 15 or 20 games for us and then went away and played 14 games. For a 20-year-old, that's only 34 games of professional football. I have to ask you because it was in the media at the time, were you disappointed at missing the Socceroos job? No, I didn't want the job. What I was disappointed in was how it unfolded. Me and Tony Popovic were put in as possible candidates when we didn't apply for the job. In my view, there was only one candidate, and that was the best candidate in Ange. I didn't want it because I only just got out of there two years ago and I was too fresh and too clean with the players that I worked with before, but also the staff. Poppa would be probably the first one to say he wasn't ready because he had one year as a coach. To get thrown into the mix the way I was, and then having to answer questions, when I was never interviewed at any stage or spoken to at all about it - only what Frank Lowy said in the media - then have to go to training and they thought I was leaving upset everything for no reason.