Anatomy of the Gulum failure

Michael Cockerill, always one to get behind his old mate Graham Arnold, has weighed into this week’s spirited Ersan Gulum debate, trying to cast Football Federation Australia’s inept handling of the affair in an altogether different light.

“For the past few weeks there’s been an attempt on Gulum's behalf to play one side off against the other,” he writes this morning in The Sydney Morning Herald.

“In 2007, Gulum did play for Australia – twice appearing for the under-23s in qualifying matches for the Beijing Olympics. Olyroos coach Graham Arnold was happy with what he saw but not overwhelmed.”

So underwhelmed, in fact, Arnold picked Nikolai Topor-Stanley for the Beijing Olympics squad ahead of him and also left behind Bruce Djite and Nathan Burns. Good work, Arnie. Like your handling of Eddy Bosnar and Neil Kilkenny.

And now Australia coach Holger Osieck, still bristling that Guus Hiddink outfoxed him to the 23-year-old stopper’s services, has launched a withering attack on the Turkey boss, accusing him and his federation of being “collectors that collect players for the sake of collecting”.

As if to make us feel better, he has also tried to assure us that when the squad was announced for Thursday morning's match against Egypt in Cairo. Gulum “was not even up for discussion”.

Which begs the question of why.

"Four weeks ago no one talks about him and he did not even play, and now all of a sudden he becomes the object of desire.”

Wrong, Holger.

Certain people at FFA might not be doing their job properly but there have been plenty of interested observers keeping tabs on Gulum – people such as Daniel Phan, Damian Davies and other local scribes who have been reporting on his progress in Turkey for nothing but the public interest.

In June 2009 Gulum was named in the Turkish Bank Asya Lig 1 team of the year, picked by a selection panel that included Hakan Sukur.

What did FFA do? Nothing.

The next month, Paddy Higgs, in the Hume Leader, a Victorian community newspaper, had an interview with Gulum while the Turkish-Australian was on holiday back home in Australia. Gulum was asked about his allegiances. His reply? “My first choice is playing for Australia.”

What did FFA do? Nothing.

And in June this year, before his loan move to Besiktas, Gulum was linked to Galatasaray, as reported by Phan here on The World Game, with Kayserispor, Gaziantepspor and Genclerbirligi also interested in his services.

What did FFA do? Nothing.

Sorry, Holger. It hasn’t all happened in the past four weeks. Gulum has been under the nose of FFA and being reported on in the Australian media, including this column, for a lot longer than that.

Now your own and FFA’s mistake in respect of Gulum has been compounded by goading Hiddink with these intemperate comments about Turkish football.

If Hiddink wasn’t going to play him against Netherlands, he certainly has every motivation to do so now.

Australia took its eye off the ball and Hiddink, once again, has proved why he’s one of the best in the business.

He’s not just lucky. He’s also as shrewd as they come.

The same cannot be said for you and FFA.