“If you're playing and playing regularly then you can have a great journey in life and that's why I do believe in these kids. The hardest thing I had to do with this job when I took over was to fix their brains because the kids have no belief or self-confidence.

“[Against Uzbekistan], if you want to talk about performance, it wasn't a great performance, it was a good, fighting performance.

“How many of those kids have ever been on the stage before and experienced that type of situation? Maybe Thomas Deng is the only player that's ever played in a bigger game - or any game of that stature in a grand final in the A-League. All those other kids, none.

“We had a couple of players that I believe through this tournament suffered from anxiety and couldn't play the game. [They] either fell ill or felt ill during the game and had to be taken off.

“That's because they're not used to playing and they're not used to experiencing these experiences.

“When you're sitting in a hotel for three days and you're waiting for this game, they all knew the importance of the game, they all knew what the game meant but they hadn't experienced that before. How to prepare for it, what to do.

“My voice is gone [Arnold was almost unintelligibly hoarse on the call] because of the amount of talking I was doing to those kids to keep them relaxed and to not be a coach, more of a father figure to them.”

Ultimately, there are a number of different options that can be taken to provide young players with opportunities to play at the highest level.

One road lies with the creation of a national second division and a reforming of the league structure to allow for the introduction of transfer fees throughout the Australian pyramid.

If properly implemented and managed, such a move would not only open up a number of professional playing opportunities that could be filled by young players but also incentivise clubs to develop and play their youth to gain both an affordable competitive advantage and in the hopes of cashing in on them with a sale to a club overseas or in Australia.

The subject of an FFA white paper in 2019, head of a working group looking at the establishment of a national second division Remo Nogarotto and new FFA CEO James Johnson recently met with PFA Chief Executive John Didulica and Christo Patsan and Nick Galatas from the Australian Association of Football Clubs Association of Australian Football Clubs.

Another possibility, one championed by Arnold, is the creation of a reserve grade competition linked to the A-League.

Such a format would provide youngsters contracted to A-League clubs such as Ramy Najjarine, Denis Genreau and Tass Mourdoukoutas opportunities to play when not selected for their club’s senior sides.

“A meaningful reserve grade competition of 20-odd games where the kids get to play,” Arnold said when asked of his vision for a reserve grade.

“If these kids are deemed not good enough for the A-League, which is no problem - coaches make their decisions, give the kids over the age of 20 somewhere to play.

"An open age [competition] with regulations that the foreigners that don’t play [in the A-League] on weekends, instead of them laying on Bondi Beach, make them play in the reserve grade competition to help them develop our players.

“An eight-game [Y-League] does nothing to develop them.

“What needs to happen, is that these kids need to play and if they’re not good enough for the A-League than give them a reserve grade competition.

“All over the world, there’s reserve grade competitions in a professional environment with the resources of professionals so they can develop and become great players.”

Header Image Credit: Asian Football Confederation