Football Season Guide

After five years of Lowe in charge Perth Glory decided the time for change had come this summer and after his very unsuccessful and short stint in Europe Tony Popovic returns to management in the A-League. The new boss saw three of last season’s regulars departing even before he took charge, but ever since Popovic was appointed no other major player has left Perth, suggesting that the atmosphere in the team is improving. The most significant departure was that of striker Taggart, which means that now two veterans will be responsible for the goals. Keogh’s good A-League record and Santalab’s regularly impacting appearances off the bench should give Glory enough firepower up front to at least cause problems. Still without Taggart the team’s front line is definitely weaker. Last season Glory had the poorest defensive record and not surprisingly Popovic focused his main efforts in sorting that. The signings of two new centre-backs and two new full-backs suggests that Glory could easily have a completely revamped back four this term. The fact that 3 of the 4 newcomers play regularly together for the national team hints that their mutual understanding will be good and for the first time in very long time Glory seem to look much stronger defensively than going forward. In midfield Castro remains key figure, but Kennedy could be very important too as ever since joining last February he has played very well for Glory as box-to-box midfielder. Newcomer Juande and Wilson are likely to be battling for the right to start next to Kennedy. The main worry for many pundits is the fact that 10 of Glory’s players are aged 30 or over, 4 of them 34 and older, plus several of the main squad members have history of injury problems and this could also affect the season in negative way once summer is in full swing and the playing conditions become difficult.