Ange Postecoglou's future as Socceroos coach will be decided in meetings with the FFA hierarchy this week, but he insists he has not yet made his own mind up.
Postecoglou, appearing on the ABC's Offsiders program on Sunday, implied that the month-long saga over his future had in part been dragged out so that he could be a shield for his players and take the pressure off them as pressure mounted during the play-offs.
"It will happen this week, it's got to happen quickly. You don't want to be continually asked, and I have tried to be as honest as I can with people saying it will all be decided after this game [the win over Honduras].
"We will have those discussions this week and we will come to a resolution."
"[My mindset] fluctuates all the time. I can't say that I am locked to a position," he told host Gerard Whateley.
"There are things there, for a whole range of reasons, some are personal, some are fairly private, some are just me as a person, some are professional, that all need to be put into place, and what's going to be good for the team is also a consideration."
Postecoglou has a contract that lasts until the end of the World Cup. Should he wish to break it he would need to negotiate an exit strategy.
If the FFA wanted to dispense with his services and bring in a new man for the tournament - as they did when they brought in Postecoglou to replace Holger Osieck after Osieck qualified the team for Brazil 2014 - they would, presumably, need to pay compensation or a settlement. And explain to an astonished public why.
There has been a public outcry in Postecoglou's favour for him to remain, although fans are baffled as to his indecision and why he would not want to lead his country to a World Cup for the second time.
The rumour mill is rife with any number of speculative stories, including suggestions that Postecoglou has fallen out with the FFA hierarchy, that he is upset by media criticism, or that he is angling to take a lucrative new job elsewhere.
But Postecoglou was adamant that FFA had given him all the support he required.
"I need to be supported to do what I need to do, and they have supported me 100pc, there is nothing that I have asked for," he said.
Otherwise, he was keeping his cards close to his chest
"It would have to be fairly compelling [not to continue]. I am the one ... giving up an opportunity to take my country to another World Cup and experience all that entails and the opportunity that could come from it.
"I like the midnight shift and the hard stuff, and we are getting to dawn, and I know I get agitated. Whether it's an endless midnight shift I am looking for I don't know, maybe it's just me.
"A lot of people try to make out I have some sort of broken relationship with David Gallop and Steven Lowy.
"That doesn't exist, it's not the way I work ... I don't work with people to become friends. I need to be supported to do what I need to do ... it's never a relationship thing with me. It goes deeper and far beyond that."
Postecoglou took the job because he felt that the Australian game was at a critical point and needed someone who particularly understood its nuances to helm the national team. Have those circumstances changed?
"It was the perfect time for someone like me to take that job four years ago. It needed someone who understood our game, the players, understood our culture, it couldn't be a foreigner.
"I get that, and seeing it through. I built this so obviously that is part of it."
The message from the national team coach was was very much "it's not you, it's me".
"It's hard to explain, it's just me as a person. There are certain things that I need to process and feel comfortable about making a decision."
He admitted that describing himself as an "outsider" in the aftermath of Wednesday night's win might have been stretching it.
As has been pointed out, he has spent half of his professional coaching career in staff jobs on the payroll of the FFA as head coach or age group coach - positions some might suggest make him the ultimate insider.
Postecoglou's outsider status stems more from the fact that unlike some of his most trenchant critics, he had never had a glittering career as an international footballer. But he has become a very successful coach.
"People close to me said you can't be an outsider. That was probably me just trying to have a bit of a dig at a certain part of the football community where I feel that I will always be an outsider.
"I just don't want to be what other people want me to be in terms of an Australian football person.
"I am allowed one dig ... I held my tongue, and I kind of had a little sly dig and it was probably out of order and I accept that but I got to get something out of it."
