Arnold told The World Game:
How he brings a team together;
He's always ready to help players deal with off-field issues;
Why Sydney FC has such a good away record;
What "the circle" meant after beating Adelaide United;
Winning on Sunday is all that matters now.
TWG: How do you bring a team together as well as you have at Sydney FC this season?
GA: It takes time but I have my methods and my ways and it's about making people happy and man-management and then you've got the football side of it, of course. But unless you've got happy people it's hard to get the best out of anyone, so I try to give the players everything that they possibly need and we work hard.
Andrew Clark (strength and conditioning) does a fantastic job to get the players fit for me and we work hard on the tactics and that's when belief and confidence comes in and then anything's possible.
TWG: And when you say happy, you mean happy as footballers and happy as people?
GA: Both. If people are happy then they will do anything and they can do anything. If they're not happy, then you're always asking them and begging them to do more. So, you know, when you have a good environment, and I try to create a good environment and a good team atmosphere and we do things together, they become mates.
When I first came into this job it was like there was no mateship in the dressing room, it was just a group of individuals. We did a lot of things together in a long pre-season and the idea was to bring the players together and the families together and build a family culture and fortunately for me the players were open to change and were prepared for change and it was that sort of attitude that has helped us get to where we are.
TWG: Is the basis of making them happy as footballers making them believe that if they work hard they're as good a chance as they should be of being in the team?
GA: Yeah. Look, I demand high standards in everything we do, I demand professionalism and I demand discipline, and without those three things then you can't have success. When I say 'keep them happy' it's about seeing them laugh and seeing that when they drive in the gate to come to training it's not a chore to come to work, it's actually a privilege to put a Sydney FC shirt on and to play for Sydney FC.
So from day one that's what I demanded and players that didn't want to follow that have left or are gone and players that were willing to change will come on the ride.
TWG: Do you find you have to be a sounding board for players in terms of any issues they've got away from football?
GA: Yeah, I try to be a mentor to them and a father figure to them. I'm 51 years of age and I've got my own kids but I try to treat them all like my own kids and if any player has got any type of issue my phone's on 24/7 for them. I try to build a relationship with them where they know I'm approachable and if they do have an issue they can feel comfortable talking to me about it, because if a player has got personal issues he's not going to perform on the park and if I can help solve the problem then we'll all get what we want on the football field.
So I'm interested in their personal life. I'm interested in what they do away from football and what makes them tick, and their families, because this is all part of what makes a successful team.
TWG: Have you had many players come to you with personal issues? And does it make you feel proud that they would?
GA: Yeah. Plenty. If they didn't feel comfortable with me they wouldn't come to me. I get, regularly, three or four phone calls a week about personal issues from players and we've got four foreigners here who are on their own, so I'm there for them as well. Their families are back home overseas, so they're here on their own and I've got to be there to support them as well, and if there's anything they need, I'll help.
But I have no trouble with the players calling me any time at night and I've had that this year and I've been a year in the job and sometimes it feels like I've been two or three years in the job because of the closeness of the relationships that we've built.
TWG: So it can be not just young players but older players. Do you find the overseas players sometimes get lonely, is that an issue?
Yeah, but the four of them are good friends. Milos (Dimitrijevic) and Nikola (Petkovic) sort of came out here together and they're friends, and Mickael (Tavares) and Jacques (Faty) are cousins, so that makes it easier. The older players need an arm around them as much as the younger players do and the older players, 90 per cent of them, have other issues where they've got wives and their own young kids and things like that, which I've been through.
I'm a father myself and I'm 20 years older than them and I've been through plenty more life experiences than them and if I can help with some advice on that I give it, so that's the way I try to manage people.
TWG: Tell us about what you did late on Saturday night, after the game against Adelaide, when you gathered the players, their families and club staff in a circle out in the middle of Allianz Stadium.
We've seen examples of that before. There's obviously no point in doing it every second week, you've got to find the right time to do that sort of thing, haven't you?
GA: I demand a lot from players but as I said I try to build a family environment and I respect and appreciate so much what the families give to us and the support they give to the players. It was our last game at Allianz and it was just an opportunity to take the families into our office and take them on to the field, where they've probably never been before, and to thank them for all their support and everything they've done for us this year.
But we've still got one game to go, we've achieved nothing.
I wanted the players to look their family members in the eyes where they normally can't - on the field - and look at their family while I talked to the players about what it's going to take to win on Sunday and what we're actually fighting for. We're not just fighting for the players and coaching staff, we're fighting for our families who have supported us all the way through.
The players' parents have supported them since they were babies, driving them around to be able to play football and supporting them financially, and this is the way we can pay them back.
I wanted the families to be involved in that talk and at the same time I wanted the players to look at their families while I was addressing them in our office - on the football pitch.
TWG: Why is the team's away record so good? If the players didn't like each other they wouldn't want to spend time with each other. The trips must be enjoyable.
GA: That's it. People on the outside think I'm grumpy but on the inside I'm very relaxed. I like a good time more than anyone and we try to create a relaxed environment. I'm a disciplinarian but I'm not someone who's going to sit and watch players when they go out after a game or whatever. I treat them as professionals and with respect and our away form has been superb.
I can't put my finger totally on why. I even went to the point of changing our home routine because of our away form, so we started staying in hotels the night before home games. The players seemed to like the routine and by staying together we could then control their diet and make sure they were eating properly the night before games and do the meetings the day of the game and the players seemed to connect with that.
Whether it's because they feel more relaxed away from home, I don't know, but what I do know is we've got a group of experienced players who have tasted success everywhere in the world and the foreigners we've got, they've all had massive games in Europe. The local boys, Rhyan Grant and Sebastian Ryall, Matty Jurman and Bernie Ibini, have been in championship-winning squads, so I think that will be a positive for us on Sunday, the experience side of it.
TWG: Are you aware that you've equalled the A-League record for most consecutive away wins, with eight, so you'll break it if you win on Sunday?
GA: No, I didn't know that. I tried to break this season down in two and I have respect for Melbourne Victory that they won the Premiers' Plate because they were the most consistent team over 27 rounds, but since January, over the last 13 rounds, we got 32 points from 39 and Victory got 28, so we've got great form.
We've scored 42 goals in 14 games, we've got great momentum, we've got players who love the big stage, so, for me, going into this finals series we were the form team because of what the back half of the season says and that's the confidence we'll take into the game.
TWG: You faced a major coaching challenge midway through the season with the massive injury toll and you went through a stage of six games where you didn't win, which is the longest winless run you've ever had as a coach.
You got to the transfer window and searched hard for the right players and re-tooled and moved a few things positionally as well. You're probably very happy with what you've done, but is it fair to say than unless you get the result on Sunday it's not going to be what matters to you.
GA: My goals, my personal goals that I set at the start of the year, were to try to change the culture of this club, to create a family environment and build a football team, and my goal for the team was to make Asian Champions League. We've done that.
Along the way we've broken records for the most points ever achieved by a Sydney FC team, we've scored the most goals ever by a Sydney FC team, we've created achievements that we didn't expect, but now you get in this position, with one game to go, and of course we want to win it and we'll be extremely disappointed if we don't.
The players have been superb, so we'll go into this game with all the confidence and all the experience and if we win it on Sunday it will be a massive achievement for this football club and this group of players.
