Socceroos Coach expected to confirm resignation in 48hrs

[Squawk]

Pim Verbeek set to quit Socceroos after World Cup 2010
Tom Smithies From: The Daily Telegraph March 10, 2010 9:28AM

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/pim-verbeek-set-to-quit-socceroos-after-world-cup-2010/story-fn4l5n4r-1225839008762

THE worst-kept secret in Australian soccer will officially be made public in the next 48 hours with the announcement that Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek will leave the Australian set-up after the World Cup.

It's believed no successor has yet been appointed but Verbeek has opted to end the speculation to avoid it becoming a distraction as the World Cup approaches.

Though he had said he intended to sit down with Football Federation CEO Ben Buckley this week to make a decision on his future, in truth their discussion yesterday simply rubberstamped what has been a tacit understanding for months.

Despite Verbeek's success in guiding Australia to both the World Cup and next year's Asian Cup, Verbeek has made no secret of his desire to return to club coaching.

With Graham Arnold also quitting to become head coach of the Central Coast Mariners, and Verbeek's compatriot Henk Duut expected to leave with him, it will mean a blank slate in the national coaching set-up for the first time since Arnold arrived as No. 2 to Frank Farina in 2000.

All eyes - especially those of the Socceroos themselves - are now on who will succeed Verbeek, with senior FFA sources cool on the prospect of national technical director Han Berger taking over as caretaker coach to oversee the Asian Cup tournament next January.

The FFA's selection committee includes Buckley, Berger, director Phil Wolanski, head of national teams John Boultbee and of course chairman Frank Lowy.

Though their search has been running for months, their consensus is they can afford to wait until after the World Cup, with a greater availability of candidates in the aftermath of a major tournament.

The option of a caretaker boss, with a "bigger name" being appointed for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers starting in just under two years, has one attraction - it would save more than $2 million a year.

With the FFA bankrolling Adelaide United and North Queensland Fury in the short term, the organisation's finances are under stress, though Lowy has been adamant that the national set-up must have the resources it requires.

Verbeek meanwhile will keep the deal he made with himself after resigning as South Korea coach two and a half years ago, that he would resume the club coaching career that he had left to join Guus Hiddink in Korea in 2000.

[devilsadvocate]

We have a habit of taking South Korea's coach, so what's the bet our next coach will be Huh Jung-Moo!

This is bad news as I've posted elsewhere.

I'd love to see Big Martin Jol given the role for the 4 years leading up to 2014.

[fish]

Will he still retire if we win the World Cup??

[RoosterMarty]

Will he still retire if we win the World Cup??

Probably.

A lot of managers leave after the world cup.

[whufc]

No surprise Pim is leaving, since his arrival the media and a portion of aussie public have been on his back about not playing pretty football, every media press conference ends in questions about when we are going to play more attacking and so forth rubbish.

Yet the man has got us to the World Cup and Asian Cup with relative ease yet that is not good enough for the johhny come lately supporters. Good luck to Pim in whatever you choose to do after Aus, you have served Australian football a great service. I have no doubt the media have contributed to Pims decision to leave Australia.

What gets me more angry is how the media jump on the Adelaide United bandwagon about how great their success in Asia is and how great it is for Australian football. They don't question the style of play Adelaide use or how ugly and defensive it is when there winning in Asia. Yet all A-League season they were looking for Vidmars head because they were to defensive only played with one striker and so forth.

The Australian football media is so amatuerish and is only doing harm to the game down under.

WE ARE NOT BRAZIL, results are all that matter at this stage of the nations footballing life. Im sure if we tried to play the brazillian style and lose the media would be calling our players soft, prima donnas, not heart and so forth.

Rant Over.

[devilsadvocate]

Exactly how I feel Spammer.

Pim's treatment in the media has been f***ing disgraceful.

They should stick to writing about Fevola.