Arnold was standing in the middle of an empty Allianz Stadium. The Sydney FC coach had just watched his side lose 2-0 to Adelaide United – its 11th defeat in a row. The dark bags under his eyes showed how tough the season had been.

He'd just finished his on-air interview with the Fox Sports panel of experts, which included host Adam Peacock and former Socceroos goalkeeper and good friend Mark Bosnich.

As Peacock thanked him for joining them, Arnold grabbed hold and wouldn't let go.

Arnold: "Is Adam Peacock still there?"

Peacock: "Yes I'm right here."

Arnold: "Where's the apology?"

Peacock: "Apology for what?"

Arnold: "For me not doing a live interview the last four weeks when we've had two afternoon games and coaches never do live interviews after afternoon games and you said I've been hiding."

Peacock: "The last three times that we've had a 7:30 game with you involved – I've counted – you've had the opportunity to talk to us at the desk and I said last week ... it's completely your right to talk to us and if you don't want to talk to us then that's fine but you preferred to do the interview at the ground."

Arnold: "That's what I was asked to do. Anyhow, you have a good evening."

To many people, it was typical Arnold. Grumpy whinger. A man under pressure, lashing out wherever he could.

To others, however, it smacked of the oldest ploy in the coaching playbook: deflection.

Although he's his own man, Arnold admires many mentors and one of them is rugby league coach Wayne Bennett. The Broncos mentor is the king of deflection, so much so these days you can see it coming before it comes from his snarled lips.

Ask Graham now if he'd "done a Bennett" on this occasion and he grins and nods.

"Because we hadn't won for so many weeks," he says. "I hadn't lost three in a row [in the past] and now it was getting to the stage where it was not good. I take responsibility for that. It was wrong but it was my way of deflecting away from the performance. My way of deflecting away from the players. And I knew if I did that I knew they wouldn't talk about the game, the performance. They would talk about me being an idiot."

Does he regret it?

"Yes … and no. Yes, because it hurt my reputation. No, because of the players. We went and won two Champions Leagues games and won the last round against Perth Glory. It deflected things away so the players didn't read about themselves."

Cut to the stage at the Westin Hotel in Sydney on Wednesday, and Peacock is interviewing Arnold on stage at the Sydney FC season launch.

They're all smiles. The bags under Arnold's eyes are gone. A new season full of hopes and dreams and awkward moments beckons, starting with the Sydney derby against the Wanderers before a record crowd at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.

In reality, though, no coach faces as much pressure as Arnold heading into this A-League season. Juggling the Asian Champions League, his side finished seventh last season, his worst in the competition by far.

Earlier this year, club management made some loud noises about extending Arnold's contract beyond this season. Now, it's all quiet. Those negotiations are now likely to happen at the end of the season.

For his part, Arnold is not concerned revealing that he could have turned his back on Sydney FC this year and taken up a lucrative position overseas.

"I love Sydney," he says. "I love being here. I had offers in the off-season to go abroad and I knocked them back. I could easily have walked away with the money on offer – it was ridiculous. But I am the type of person who wouldn't be able to show my head back in Sydney again after how we finished last year. I want to finish on a good note. The good thing is my destiny is in my own hands. If I want to leave, I can leave. They're talking about new A-League clubs ..."

The off-season could not have come quick enough for Arnold. He took off for Bali for three weeks and it allowed him time to breathe.

Last week, Fairfax Media's football expert Michael Cockerill delivered this telling line in one of his columns: "After a tough off-season when long-time mates delivered plenty of home truths, Arnold is back acting, and looking, like the boss in every respect."

Who were the mates and what were the home truths?

"The mates were people close to me who have been involved in and out of football," Arnold says. "The people who know me well know my behaviour last year wasn't me. People in the game who I know well, like Mike, [Robbie] Slater and Phil Moss and those guys, they were very supportive. Mark Bosnich was very supportive all through it. I want to show people this year the real me. Not the one I was last year."

And who is the real Graham Arnold?

"People who know me well know I am a funny bloke. I'm a good guy. I'm a caring person. I'm an honest person. I'm passionate and hard-working."

Indeed, Bosnich has known Arnold for decades and he offers this: "When I was a 14 to 16-year-old at Sydney Croatia, he was the funniest man in the change room. He would be in the top three funniest players I've ever seen."

Of course, this description jars with the "grumpy whinger" tag most have slapped on Arnold. He's one of those passionate coaches that the television producer adores, and it seems to linger on him slightly longer than most.

"Yeah, I feel it," he says of the focus on him on the sidelines during matches. "It's because I don't hide my emotions. I won't change that. I can't change that. There will be blow ups this year, a hundred per cent. I don't want to change. I read a quote from Sir Alex Ferguson a few years ago: 'It's hard to smile when you're on the sideline in a game of football'. One thing is, I always want to protect my players. I love my players. Any player who plays under me knows the first thing I think of is protecting them. I don't try to protect myself. It's not that I don't care what they say or think. I care for my players, then myself."

Arnold might use Bennett's deflection technique, but when he's stalking the sideline he reminds me of Canberra coach Ricky Stuart.

Says Arnold: "[FFA chief executive] David Gallop says, 'You and Ricky Stuart should be brothers. He pays as many fines as you abusing refs'."

Stuart is one of the most wound-up coaches I've ever seen, in any code. When he was NSW's State of Origin coach, he barely slept.

In Peacock's book That Night, which explores the match when the Socceroos beat Uruguay to book their place in the World Cup finals, coach Guus Hiddink offered this of Arnold: "He was a very direct guy in his way of playing. He was very direct, some might consider him a little bit rude, but no, it's for me no single problem, he has a very good heart."

Does he care too much?

"Like everyone else, I have a fear of failure," Arnold concedes. "I'm such a proud person. People say to me, 'Why, when you've done so much?' I never look back at achievements. I've never watched a Socceroos game I was part of. I've never watched an A-League grand final that we've won. I've never watched big games. I just don't do it. I want nothing more than to win something now for Sydney FC."

It starts with the Wanderers. And just so you know, he's mended the bridge with Fox Sports, including Bosnich, who he didn't speak to for months.

"Because we're both competitors and opinionated, there were phone calls," Arnold says. "We had words. But we're good mates. It doesn't mean anything. Afterwards, I rung and said, 'Sorry about that, I'm just a dickhead'. I got some good mates out there who I really care for and they care for me."

And if you can't beat them, join them. On Tuesday night, he will be on the Fox Sports panel providing expert analysis when the Socceroos play Japan in a World Cup qualifier.

"I promised I would be a good boy," he smiles.