Newcastle Jets stop chasing Graham Arnold, promise coach soon

By JOSH LEESON
May 1, 2014, 10:37 p.m.

JETS chief executive Robbie Middleby said an announcement was imminent on the vacant head coaching position after the club withdrew from talks with Graham Arnold.

The Jets announced yesterday that Arnold, an A-League winner with Central Coast, was no longer a candidate.

Arnold is now strongly tipped to replace Frank Farina at Sydney FC.

Middleby said that ‘‘out of respect’’ for Arnold he was unable to reveal why negotiations had broken down.

He denied Arnold was the Jets’ first choice.

‘‘I wouldn’t say he was the No.1 choice. I’d just say he was an impressive candidate like the rest of them,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s been going on for eight weeks now, the situation.

‘‘We’ve gone through the process, and when Graham became available, of course we wanted to meet with him and go through things.

‘‘We had two really good meetings, but we had to make a decision that it wasn’t going to be Graham.’’

Middleby promised Jets fans the right coach was among the four other candidates interviewed for the role.

‘‘We’ve interviewed some very good candidates and we are confident we’ve got the right person in there, and hopefully sooner rather than later an announcement will be made,’’ he said.

‘‘I’m not saying we definitely have gotten someone, but we’re very confident that one of the candidates that we’ve interviewed is the right person for the club.’’

One of those candidates is understood to be Clayton Zane, who served as interim coach from January after Gary van Egmond’s exit.

When asked if Zane was not the club’s preferred candidate, Middleby said: ‘‘At the moment I don’t want to put Clayton out of the mix.

‘‘I don’t want to come out and say, ‘He’s definitely not the one.’ As far as we’re concerned he’s going to be part of the coaching set-up.’’

Last week the Jets sacked long-time assistant coach Craig Deans, goalkeeping mentor Bob Caitlin and strength and conditioning boss Karl Dodd. It was a move many speculated was about clearing the decks for Arnold and his coaching team.

Middleby said replacements for those positions would be selected after the new head coach was appointed.

‘‘We’ve already spoken to the possible candidates about these roles within the club.


‘‘We want to, together with the head coach, decide on those positions, and we’ve been transparent to everyone that we’ve interviewed about what we need at the club and what staff is needed.

‘‘That decision will be made by the head coach in conjunction with the club in all those positions.’’

Player retention will be high on the coach’s agenda.

Veterans Joel Griffiths and David Carney have held talks with Middleby but are attracting interest from rival clubs. Josh Mitchell, James Brown, Joey Gibbs and Nick Ward are also off contract.

‘‘With the candidates we’ve had discussions about what players are off contract,’’ Middleby said. ‘‘So we’ve had an input with the certain coaches we have interviewed, and it’s a priority to either retain or let the players know they’re not required.

‘‘We’ve been transparent all the way along and always said to a player there are no guarantees.’’

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/22...h-soon/?cs=306
Seems our timeline is one of the most important things on the clubs mind at the moment, but I really can't see how waiting another week for their preferred candidate is too long.

Getting the feeling it definitely won't be Zane now and I can't accept that a partnership of bridges and Zane could ever appear as reasonable option to a competent management.

Hopefully this means that the quality of the other candidates stacks up to Arnold's, but I get the feeling that the club was not so keen on his asking price or perhaps his ideas of taking on both a club and national role and that's the reason they won't wait. After all it was Baartz who was so keen on Arnold last time, I doubt that would have changed.