Central Coast captain John Hutchinson is very confident there will be a seamless transition from former coach Graham Arnold to his successor Phil Moss.
Central Coast captain John Hutchinson is very confident there will be a seamless transition from former coach Graham Arnold to his successor Phil Moss.
Arnold left the Mariners this week after accepting a two-year deal to manage J.League outfit Vegalta Sendai.
Moss will take over the reins for the first time on November 23 when the Mariners travel to Perth to face the Glory, and Hutchinson is happy about the appointment of the club’s new coach.
“We trust in Phil Moss, he has the backing of all of the players and staff,” Hutchinson said.
“It’s pretty exciting. Everyone is on a clean slate now and we are looking forward to it.
“Mossy 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 for so long.”
While Hutchinson was looking forward to the next chapter in the Mariners’ history under Moss, he also lauded the contribution Arnold made to the Mariners in his three years at the club.
The 50-year-old guided Central Coast to an A-League championship, premiership and two grand finals in his tenure and Hutchinson intimated the Mariners owed Arnold a debt of gratitude.
“I don’t think the Mariners would be what it is without Arnie,” Hutchinson said.
“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 have this weekend off due to their encounter with Wellington being rescheduled as a result of so many All Whites being unavailable for the Phoenix due to New Zealand’s second-leg World Cup qualifier play-off against Mexico.
But after a golden opportunity to refresh themselves, Hutchinson insisted his team needed to knuckle down following an ordinary start to the season which has seen them only win one of their first five matches.
“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.”
