Football personality Robbie Slater says Sydney FC manager and close friend Graham Arnold is "probably out of the picture" for the Socceroos because of the delay in the process of appointing a new national team coach.
Ange Postecoglou stepped down from the Australian job in November shortly after qualifying the team for World Cup, but the FFA have said a new coach won't be appointed until mid-February - about a month before the Socceroos next match against Norway in Oslo on March 23.
Slater, who has been involved in Australia coach discussions with Arnold before, believes it's too late for the Sydney FC coach to take the Socceroos role and lead the team to Russia.
"I think Graham Arnold is probably out of the picture now," Slater said on Big Sports Breakfast.
"Time is rolling on. It’s too late now, I feel in a lot of respects, for a local coach.
"Even if you go in with a local coach, they should be overseas, checking on the player’s form – the World Cup is in June, it’s not that far away in a sporting sense.
"It’s already too late. We’re into January now. March we’ve got a game against Norway.
"How farcical is the fact we’ve announced a game against Norway and we’ve got no coach?"
Slater has previously been outspoken on the FFA's selection process for a new coach, labelling it a 'disgrace', while also calling Postecoglou 'weak' for not revealing the reasons behind his resignation.
Australia has been drawn in World Cup group C alongside France, Denmark and Peru.
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