Perth Glory’s longest-serving coach Kenny Lowe has been axed after failing to guide the side to the A-League finals this season.
Lowe, who had one more year to run on his contract, has been head coach since late 2013.
He will now move into a youth role at the club, where he is expected to be named technical manager at the Glory Academy.
Lowe’s axing comes just a day after Western Sydney Wanderers coach Josep Gombau was shown the door.
Former Wanderers coach Tony Popovic could come into the reckoning to replace either Lowe or Gombau.
Popovic left the Wanderers on the eve of the season to take up the head coaching role at Turkish club Karabukspor.
He was sacked there following 10 losses in 11 games.
Lowe helped guide Glory through a number of stormy times.
He took over as interim coach in December 2013 when a player revolt led to the stunning axing of then-coach Alistair Edwards.
Lowe was appointed full-time coach at the end of that season and he was left to pick up the pieces yet again when the club’s salary cap breaches were revealed in 2014/15.
Glory were stripped of their finals spot and fined $269,000 for those breaches.
Remarkably, Lowe was able to regenerate his squad quickly and guide them into the finals for the following two seasons.
But they fell just short this campaign, with injuries cruelling their chances.
Needing a win in the final round to sneak into sixth spot, Glory lost 3-2 to Brisbane in Perth.
He guided the club to 52 wins, 27 draws and 49 losses during his 128 games at the helm.
Colli
Guest
Fantastic comment, this sums up exactly my thoughts on the Kenny era (and that of a number of my fellow Glory tragics who have frustratingly watched the climax to this highly disappointing era).
fadida
Guest
Something something sunburnt land something something.
Old Greg
Guest
The defence wasn't bad in 2015/16 when Ante Covic was in goals and Kristian Vadocz was shielding the defence. Not enough people have been prepared to question the recruitment of Liam Reddy. Sure, there are some games where he looks like Manuel Neuer, but those games are few and far between.
TheVolley
Guest
Lowe blow!
Bondy
Guest
He got two years longer than I would've given him, I expect the Glory to be right there next season .. ...
John B
Guest
Kenny did not get enough out of certain players - Keogh and Taggart in particular. At times it looked like they could not be arsed. Popovich would suit Perth. The supporters here are very fickle. Band wagon jumpers. They will turn out to see a winning team but not otherwise. With a city of two million it only takes a winning formula and some media promotion to turn the club around..
Lee
Guest
Bring back Terry mcfylnn as captain and manager of Perth (no) glory. He would provide endless entertainment- it is quite unbelievable that said drongo, who couldn’t get a professional deal at any of the 100 or so clubs in the UK, captained Sydney FC. What an embarrassment! It highlights the lamentable standard of asso football in this sunburnt land. Good luck to Denmark, Peru and France in Russia.
Malo
Guest
If you can’t make the finals you should be fired. It ain’t hard
The Phantom Commissioner
Roar Rookie
Agree with all of that, when it comes down to it he's not good enough if we want to be winning things. Scraping into the finals isn't good enough when the club has gone 14 years without silverware as it is and i'm pretty confident in saying if we had an Arnold or Merrick in the top job we'd have won something in the past 4 years.
nevyn
Guest
Kenny improved what had been a woeful team at the time and instilled some semblance of professionalism in the playing group. But he's just not cut out for a first team manager role. His lack of attention to detail with regards to the playing system gave freedom to certain players to do what they wanted, which was great when it worked, but terrible when it didn't (every game against Sydney FC). Our only runs of success occurred when he was able to recruit decent holding midfielders to clean up after the attack (Griffiths, Sandor, Vadocz and Kilkenny). This seasons end of season run had more to do with Kilkenny's signing and his ability to organise players on the park than with players returning from injury. Certain players (Keogh, Castro) were clearly favorites of the coach and could do no wrong, whilst others couldn't get a sniff despite playing well (Italiano, Scott). It's no surprise that some of the best young talent Glory have produced have moved to other clubs (O'Neill, Risdon, Roux, Duncan, De Silva, Babalj). He's also made a lot of questionable recruitments such as Poscoleiro, Walker, Mills, Andreu and Djulbic. Good to see the Glory putting him in charge of the Glory academy, essentially the role he played before with the Football West NTC where he contributed to producing many of the good youngsters that have come out of WA. Question is whether Sage will spend the money on a good replacement or will he go for a cut price option.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
It is possible, though Perth have something of a record engaging British type coaches. Talking of Asia, Luong Xuan Truong is the type of player that could do well in the A-League. He spent a couple of years in the K-League but was never really given a chance to perform. Only 22 years old, he'd be a decent selection for Perth.
Griffo
Roar Guru
Sage want's to engage with Asia a lot more. Perhaps a foreign coach is on the cards now... Lowe seemingly employed a great attack, but left defence to work out among themselves what to do. He's not completely lost to Perth but perhaps the last season we'll see Lowe in the A-League.
Midfielder
Guest
Agree Punter ... I don't think Perth have had a decent coach in Hal... lets hope they get Popa or similar quality
punter
Guest
Lovely guy it appears, great media presence, great fun on sidelines, not sure about coaching ability at the highest level in this country, will be missed.