He joins the likes of Marcelo Bielsa, Gianni De Biasi, Christoph Daum, Jurgen Klinsmann, Guus Hiddink and former Serbia coach Slavoljub Muslin as high-profile, experienced managers who have been mentioned in dispatches as potential candidates for the Socceroos' top job in recent days.

And they are just the foreign contenders. Graham Arnold, Tony Popovic, John Aloisi and Kevin Muscat have also been put in the frame as potential successors to Ange Postecoglou.

It's hardly surprising as the seat vacated by Postecoglou is attractive, given it guarantees participation at the World Cup.

So it's also no surprise that the FFA, which said it was in no hurry to replace the man who quit a week or so after securing Australia's place in Russia, wants to make sure it leaves no stone unturned in its search for the right man, who it plans to appoint by mid-February, a month before Australia play their next international friendly in March.

On Tuesday the FFA announced it was appointing former Socceroos Mark Bresciano, Stan Lazaridis and Mark Schwarzer to a panel of experts who will advise the FFA on the appointment of a new coach.

It is a second FFA post for former winger Lazaridis, who is also an external member of the FFA board's football development committee.

The trio, who have 253 international caps between them, were part of the "golden generation" for Australia and were together in the squad for the 2006 World Cup. Schwarzer and Bresciano were part of the team in South Africa 2010, while Bresciano made it to Brazil

They will be working with FFA's head of national performance Luke Casserly, Australia's assistant coach Ante Milicic (both of whom are also former Socceroos), FFA's national technical director Eric Abrams and FFA's chief medical officer Dr Mark Jones. The appointment of two international experts is expected to be finalised soon.

International search and consulting firm SRi Executive will co-ordinate the process.

"As you would expect, we have had a high level of interest already," CEO David Gallop said.

"We are open-minded about whether the coach is Australian or someone from overseas but they must live in Australia, embrace the progress on and off the field that has been achieved with national teams over the past four years - especially in the areas of technical development and sports science - and be prepared to be an ambassador for our sport here and abroad.

"FFA's starting point is to appoint a coach for the long term but we will be advised on this and other matters by our expert panel."