Graham Arnold "honoured" to be Australia candidate

Central Coast Mariners manager Graham Arnold has said that it would be "an honour" to coach the Australian national side.

The Socceroos are searching for a replacement for Holger Osieck, who lost his job despite leading them to the World Cup finals due to heavy recent defeats to Brazil and France.

A number of candidates have been put forward and the 50-year-old said that just being talked about for the job gives him a sense of pride, although he is keeping his feet on the ground.

"It would be an honour to coach my country, but there's a lot of thinking to do on my side of it as well," Arnold told reporters.

"You've got to think about it from the coach's side of it as well because, no one has asked us to, we didn't apply for the job and it's just been put out there that we are candidates for the job.

"So at this point in time, that's the thing that is all up in the air. You'd have to be honoured, and I'm honoured to be a candidate for the national team, but there's a lot of water to go under the bridge."

After taking charge of the national team on an interim basis after Guus Hiddink in 2006, Arnold paid the price for a poor Asian Cup campaign in 2007 when they were knocked out by Japan in the quarter-finals.

However, he revealed that the experience has not soured his appetite for the job.

"I had a period of six or seven months as an interim coach and it was murder," he added. "It's so hard if you can't do things the way you want to do it."

Arnold was speaking after his team's 2-2 draw with Melbourne Heart.