Ruben Zadkovich’s sudden Perth Glory exit has created yet another major task for the club to navigate in an off-season of change, writes Matt Comito.
It was the sudden coaching departure that even caught the club CEO by surprise.
Last week Ruben Zadkovich announced his resignation as Perth Glory head coach after just one full season in charge of the Isuzu UTE A-League club.
He was halfway through a two-year contract; the shock exit came as he thanked the club for allowing him to “pursue other opportunities elsewhere.”
Now comes a pivotal moment in Glory’s history, as the search for a new coach coincides with a potential ownership shake-up.
Get your tickets to Perth Glory v West Ham at Optus Stadium in July
Glory have only just emerged from a turbulent four-season spell hampered first by the COVID pandemic and then the redevelopment of HBF Park, displacing the club and its members and undermining any sense of stability.
Zadkovich’s exit is the latest chapter of the club’s story, that of late seems to throw up surprises at the turn of every page.
“It did catch me by surprise,” Radich told Sportsday WA in midweek. “But having said that, I respect and understand Ruben’s decision – and as a club, we’re comfortable with it.
“It gives us an opportunity to look ahead; I’m a glass-half-full sort of guy.
“One door closes, another opens. With change comes opportunity, it now gives us a chance to have a look at what’s out there – and there are a lot of high-calibre coaches out there, well-credentialed coaches.”
Radich confirmed the club is short-listing candidates, “seeking the counsel and guidance of some respected football people to assist in that process.”
While offering no timeframe for the club to complete its head coach hunt, Radich did pinpoint Glory’s upcoming friendly with Premier League club West Ham United in June and a subsequent Australia Cup play-off as events he hopes to see a permanent new boss taking charge for.
But until that time? “We’ll draw upon the staff we’ve got here,” Radich said.
“We’ve got some good coaching staff within the Glory setup, both in the academy with our academy director Kenny Lowe and (goalkeeper coach) Danny Milosevic and the like, so there (are) options there. We’re still formulating what the best option forward in the interim is.”
A potential change in ownership adds a layer of complication to Glory’s head coach hunt, in terms of a candidate’s willingness to commit without those details being ironed out.
The Australian Professional Leagues (APL, publisher of this website) is supporting the club in the search for new investors. It’s a hunt that could potentially include a full transfer of ownership. The APL is working with current Glory chairman Tony Sage and prospective buyers to try and execute a deal and complete the sale.
In the meantime, Radich is running the club on a business as usual basis; prior to any confirmed purchase, it’s fair to surmise his duties include making decisions on retention of players pending the appointment of a new head coach.
“It’s well-known the club is looking for stability in an investment point of view,” he said. “Having that in hand would help enormously, but there (are) some areas now we’ve got a clear runway into next season, and we’re not going to have the same sort of turmoil fixture-wise and venue-wise we had last year.
“We do have great faith in the support we’re getting from the APL… it’s vital the APL have a team in Perth, they want to see the club succeed and they’re doing all they can in terms of courting investors into the club.”
Glory’s ownership situation was one of the key topics of what was Zadkovich’s final post-match press conference as head coach. His side fell to defeat to Western United in the final game of the regular season, after which Zadkovich outlined his plans to “continue on the path of improvement” in the future.
It was a message that remained a consistent theme throughout the campaign: laying the foundations for a positive future for the club.
“I think we surprised a lot of people,” he said at the time. “I don’t think a lot of people expected us to be competitive,” he said, summarising a season in which Glory pushed for a top-six finish until the very last round of the season.
“We’ve tried to target some real key individuals that can be the nucleus of a squad moving forward, and put some processes in place that will build sustained success for the club… now is the time to capitalise on the progress that we have made – but again, that’s difficult because we have some off-field issues, a potential change of ownership and the sale of the club.
“There’s always something hanging over us here at the moment, and that makes it a little more difficult to keep building.
“But the process is very clear, and the vision is very clear.”
Zadkovich’s departure has caused that clear path to become a lot more murky. But who are the viable options to take the club forward?
In recent history, the club has promoted from within.
After Tony Popovic’s departure in 2020, Glory turned to former assistant coach and NPL coach Richard Garcia. Then, after sacking Garcia during the 2021-22 season, the club elevated Zadkovich from the NPL setup to lead the club on an interim basis, before making his position permanent ahead of the 2022-23 season.
Former Glory defender Chris Coyne served as Zadkovich’s assistant through the 2022-23 campaign, as well as the club’s NPL head coach and, considering the pathway taken by both Garcia and Zadkovich to land the top job, looms as a top candidate.
Meanwhile, former Glory head coach Kenny Lowe – who was in charge between 2013 and 2018 – is also a possibility, given his current role as academy director, especially if the club opts for an interim appointment.
But in A-Leagues circles, there is no bigger name currently on the market for the club to potentially headhunt than Ufuk Talay.
The former Wellington Phoenix boss called time on his four seasons in New Zealand at the conclusion of the 2022-23 campaign.
The ‘Nix thrived under Talay’s leadership across those four seasons; recruitment is one of Talay’s strongest suits and it is reflected in his track record in bringing top-tier internationals to the A-League Men, including Ulises Davila and Oskar Zawada.
Then, there’s the unlikelihood of former New Zealand boss Danny Hay, who just recently took charge of NPLM WA side Perth SC.
The 48-year-old former New Zealand international was head coach of the All Whites for two years. His tenure ended in June, 2022 after a 1-0 defeat to Costa Rica in a one-off FIFA Men’s World Cup qualifying play-off.
Hay was controversially asked to reapply for the role at the conclusion of an independent review that deemed there was a “level of separation” between the staff of the All Whites staff and New Zealand Football’s high-performance department.
Hay played for Perth Glory in both the National Soccer League and the A-League Men and on paper seems an excellent candidate for the club to target as its new head coach – but there’s respect to be paid to the NPL club the former All Whites boss officially took charge of on June 5.
After a turbulent start to the season, Perth SC moved on a pair of club legends in head coach Marc Wingell and assistant Dale Wingell to begin the hunt for a new boss.
Interim head coach Basil Lenzo and Stuart Banks were replaced as Hay took the reins. These were moves not taken lightly, by a club with no intention to cause more upheaval in its 75th-anniversary season.
Speaking to the Perth Football Podcast, Hay himself admitted to the podcast he “wasn’t pursuing any opportunities inside the game”, and was in need of a break, prior to taking on the Perth job. The former All Whites boss may be a target of Glory in the future – but it appears that door will not be ajar prior to the 2023-24 A-League Men season.
Perth’s NPL campaign will end in September; soon after, the A-League Men campaign will begin. Glory’s imperative is to get a head coach through the door as early as possible to prepare to take on West Ham in the best-case scenario, but at bare minimum to oversee a lengthy pre-season to prepare the club for an improved showing in 2023-24.
Glory chief Radich says the club is stockpiling CVs as they begin yet another managerial hunt.
“I don’t expect (to have interest), I already know: we’ve got a lot of interest – overseas and domestically,” he said.
“I think in that regard, it’s just about what we’re capable of obtaining. But we’re looking (for) a well-credentialed coach, someone who understands the Australian football landscape (and) is renowned for being a very good people manager – and that buys into the culture we want to create: to get some respect and integrity, having community at heart and trying to get the best out of this squad.”
DID YOU KNOW?: Glory are taking on West Ham United in Perth in July!
