Perth Glory coach Alistair Edwards has confirmed that his future at nib Stadium will hinge on the club’s willingness to embrace a three-year plan.
Perth Glory coach Alistair Edwards has confirmed that his future at nib Stadium will hinge on the club’s willingness to embrace a three-year plan he believes will re-establish the West Australian outfit as a powerhouse of Australian football.
The 44-year-old former Socceroo has guided the men in purple to three wins from four games since taking up the reins on an interim basis and his contractual future was the subject of conflicting press reports earlier in the week.
“Part of my role in coming here was not only the on-field stuff, but the off-field stuff as well,” he said.
“It was to sit down with the club and look at the types of things that need to be done moving forward to bring the club more sustainable success.
“I’ve looked at the plan that has been with the club since 2011, but there’s no point having a plan if it just sits in a cupboard and gathers dust.
“It’s a three-year plan and it’s a very good plan by the way.
“So my whole focus is to make sure that everyone is fully behind it and that we can all move forward together, because it needs to be resourced properly and it needs to be communicated properly.
“If the club is moving forward in a certain way, everyone has to be on board and that’s been my focus for the last month and in particular, the last week.
“If it doesn’t get sorted, there’s no way I’ll be leaving my role with FFA and even then, it all depends.
“I’m a coach, not a cleaner.
“I’m not here to clean some dust off a cupboard.
“I’m here to try and make sure that we have a sustainable plan moving forward and for that to happen, we need everyone to buy in, from the players to the fans, to the hierarchy and if that happens, who knows?”
And Edwards has no doubt that should the plan be implemented, Glory could replicate the great success they enjoyed during the latter years of the old NSL.
“There is so much potential with this club,” he said.
“It’s great to hear all the good things people are saying about Western Sydney Wanderers, but we are the benchmark club in the competition, we always have been.
“The A-League modelled everything on what Glory used to be when it started up and the plan we’ve got in place is to bring that back to Perth Glory.
“It’s up to us now to make sure that it’s a unanimous plan.”
In terms of Glory’s immediate future, meanwhile, Edwards revealed that Jacob Burns will line-up against Wellington on Sunday at centre-back rather than his more accustomed holding midfield role and that 16-year-old Daniel De Silva will make his second substitute appearance of the season.
“Wellington play a certain style of football,” he said, “And, obviously we’ve selected players to combat that as much as possible.
“But the fact is that Jacob is an exceptional player.
“At this moment, it’s very hard for me to disrupt that midfield formation, particularly with what we’re looking to do in this game.
“Jacob has played in that position a couple of times before and with his experience and leadership qualities, he’ll hold us in good stead.
“As for Daniel, he’s performing well on the training pitch and he deserves another chance tomorrow.
“We’ve just got to make sure that we introduce him at the right times and in the right games.”
