Central Coast Mariners captain John Hutchinson has paid tribute to his former boss Graham Arnold following his switch to J-League outfit Vegalta Sendai, but Hutchinson insists his side remains focussed on the task at hand.
Central Coast Mariners captain John Hutchinson has paid tribute to his former boss Graham Arnold following his switch to J-League outfit Vegalta Sendai, but Hutchinson insists his side remains focussed on the task at hand.
“I don-t think the Mariners would be what it is without Arnie [Graham Arnold],” Hutchinson told media before training on Friday. “The Central Coast is on the world map now. We-ve got some of our former players in Switzerland, China, Belgium and Scotland. I don-t think that would have been possible without Graham Arnold at the Mariners.”
“He wants to keep improving and testing himself. He-s one of the best coaches I-ve ever had. He is a great man and he pushed us to places that we had never been before. He was the reason we won the Championship. We now need to move forward and make sure we don-t lose sight of our goals this season.”
The Mariners skipper admits he is pleased to see Phil Moss promoted to the top job following Arnold-s departure, but says the yellow and navy now need to knuckle down to get their season moving.
“I think the week off has come at a great time for us. We need to move forward now. We haven-t started this season too well and we haven-t played the type of football that we want to play,” said Hutchinson.
“We lost a lot of quality at the end of last season, so we-re still in a transition phase. It will take us a bit of time to readjust after losing our Head Coach. We just need to be patient. We trust in Phil Moss, he has the backing of all of the players and staff.”
Hutchinson says he-s looking forward to working with the former Manly United boss in his first taste of life as a Head Coach in Australia-s top flight.
“It-s pretty exciting. Everyone is on a clean slate now and we are looking forward to it. Mossy [Phil Moss] is obviously going to get the boys working nice and hard. He-s his own man, but I can-t see him making too many changes in the structure after working with Graham Arnold Arnie for so long,” Hutchinson concluded.
