Japanese J-League club Yokohama F Marinos has unveiled new coach Ange Postecoglou and his assistants to an enthusiastic gathering of club supporters in Yokahama last Sunday.
In his address at the official unveiling ceremony, the former Socceroos’ boss told the assembled audience through a translator “I am very privileged and humbled to be the manager of such a great club as Yokohama F. Marinos. I know I come to a club with a great history and fantastic supporters and I know the responsibility that I have being the new manager. My family and myself are looking forward to a new adventure, to seeing a new country and living in a different culture, to embracing the Japanese culture, and bringing my leadership and my philosophy to the club, to the team and make sure that 2018 will be a successful season.”
He added, “My priority and my ambition is to have Yokohama F Marinos playing football that will make our supporters excited, make them proud and most importantly will bring us success. I see this year as the year that everyone will be talking about Yokohama F.Marinos. I promise we will work very hard to make everyone’s dream come true but we can’t do that without your support. One of the most exciting things for me is when we walk out for our first game and I see the fantastic support which I’ve seen only from afar so far. I look forward to that.”
Alongside Postecoglou are two Australians he has asked to work alongside him. They are close confidante Peter Cklamovski who worked as Socceroos technical analyst alongside Postecoglou. The other person is former Adelaide United strength and conditioning coach Gregory John King.
Meanwhile, back in Australia, the hunt heats up for Postecoglou’s successor to the vacant Socceroos’ head coaching position. The FFA said earlier this week it had whittled down its list of possible candidates to a shortlist and that formal interviews will begin as early as next week with the aim of completing the selection process by mid- February.
The FFA has not revealed any names on the shortlist but strong candidates would appear to include Graham Arnold, Marcelo Biesla, Bert Van Marwijk, and Slaven Bilic.
FFA CEO David Gallop said in a statement on Tuesday, “We have worked with our panel of internal and external experts, including former Socceroos Mark Schwarzer, Mark Bresciano and Stan Lazaridis, to draw up the selection criteria and then considered candidates against this criteria.”
“Through this process we have whittled the names down to a small number of candidates, local and international, and we will soon begin the formal interviews.
“It has been clear from the outset that we have to pick someone who can lead the Socceroos for this year’s FIFA World Cup while also making sure we have the right set-up for the future, including next year’s AFC Asian Cup at which we will be the defending champions.
“The role has attracted some outstanding individuals and we are confident that we will be able to achieve a very good result for football in Australia.”