He might not have been beaming from ear to ear as you’d expect at yesterday’s media conference at ME Bank Stadium, but you could tell Perth Glory owner Tony Sage was pretty chuffed he had got his man. In his own relaxed manner Sage revealed yesterday Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler had agreed to join the former NSL powerhouse on a one-year-deal.
For a club who’ve struggled since the Australian top division was revamped and fully professionalised (playing in just one final in five A-League seasons, having won the last ever NSL Grand Final), the announcement marked a momentous day for Perth.
And Sage, who has made it his personal mission to restore Perth’s former glories, responded without a moment’s hesitation when asked if he thought Fowler was the club’s biggest signing to date.
“I think so,” Sage said. “We want to win, if Robbie was just going to be an ornament we wouldn’t be interested, but I think he proved to everyone last year in a team that didn’t make the finals and struggled for a lot of the year, for him to have a big contribution and he scored nine, he can play.
“With guys like Jacob (Burns), Mile (Sterjovski), (Steven) McGarry and (Victor) Sikora feeding him the ball I think he’ll get a lot more goals this year for us.”
Indeed, Sage’s spending spree before last season, landing three Socceroos and a former English Premier League skipper, certainly showed his ambition but the team fell short in the 2009-2010 campaign.
As a West Australian onlooker, I got the sense a lot of fans felt last season was rather anti-climactic, but signing Fowler will surely reignite the expectation and excitement at Perth Oval.
Sage admitted: “I’d be disappointed if we didn’t finish in the top two obviously, but top four is the aim initially.”
For the success-starved Glory fans, this kind of talk is music to their ears.
And for Sage to actually land Fowler, when a few weeks ago it seemed far-fetched, shows things are changing at Perth.
Some may question whether Fowler, at 35-years-young, can still remain fit and capable of making an impact, but his form at the Fury, especially early last season, suggests he’s got plenty to offer.
On Sunday, before this story broke, I actually spoke to Fowler’s agent George Scott and he (whilst obviously wanting to trumpet his asset) was adamant the ex-Liverpool striker could still do very well in Australia.
Scott initially told me about his problems at North Queensland, saying: “He was taken there as a striker and when he played as a striker he scored the goals. Latterly what he had to do, because there was nothing coming from midfield, he had to drop back and he was actually creating chances for other players. He was the playmaker.
“That’s not what he was taken there for. He was there to score goals. If they had the players there to feed him he have scored the goals. He’d get 18-19-20 goals a season, no problem.”
As Sage says, Glory have got the midfield to (hopefully) feed Fowler and that bodes well for Perth.
So if Fowler can reach anywhere near Scott’s lofty targets then there’s no doubt Perth will be a force to be reckoned with.
Glory fans, though, may still worry coach Dave Mitchell isn’t the man to guide them to the top, but with Fowler on board perhaps those concerns have been abated. A genuine superstar with a mature head and an eye for goal could be just what the team needs.
So for a club with Perth’s glorious past, announcing the biggest signing in their history yesterday, suggests this could truly be the beginning of a return to former glories.
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