DENNIS GEDLING blogs on the Perth Glory for BPL.

Every morning since Monday, October 4 2010 I have been jumping out of bed extra early and scurrying to my PC to check up on the latest A-League news. The reason I was making this change to my morning routine was to see if Tony Sage had grown a pair and sacked Perth Glory coach David Mitchell after leading the club to a record four losses in a row and quite obviously losing the players' (and fans) confidence.

Still, like waking up every morning and expecting it to be Christmas when deep down you knew it wasn't I was disappointed when there was no news, nada, nothing, just more Sydney FC-centric biased crap from the usual suspects. The only Glory news anywhere was the fact that Robbie Fowler was hightailing it back to the UK during the international break to buy more houses, pay Steven Gerrard's legal bills or throw pebbles at Anfield.

The situation was getting beyond pathetic for a club that was hotly tipped to be top two material and forced sad impressionable plebs like me going on in blogs like this about how this could be the moment and we were ready to make the big step up after so many years of being treated like a beaten ginger stepchild. The most recent home game against Brisbane Roar (a well coached side it must be said) was a prime example of the way Glory sometimes just go in to a hazy stupor under Mitchell. Half asleep thanks to a baffling 5pm Sunday kick off (to appease the Foxtel Gods no doubt) I sat through the entire match and I still couldn't tell you what formation(s) were being played and who was in what position. Fowler just stood around the centre circle (admittedly some good touches) but Pellegrino, Sterjovski, Howarth, Baird & Burns just seemed to wander about the pitch aimlessly doing as they pleased. For any of you who watched, how many times did Brisbane's midfield advance unopposed for 20 or 30 metres and there was no one in front of the defence to hinder them? 
It was only in last 15 minutes when Jelic came on and Howarth was finally told to stick to the left (and Pellegrino to the right) that there was any sort of cohesion along with looking to threaten. If it wasn't for Andy Todd and Scott Neville, plus some woeful finishing from the Roar, that could have been an embarrassing scoreline.

As we all trudged out of a dimly lit NIB Stadium we all knew that Sage had to act and act swiftly. This belief that Sage would have Mitchell sacked within the hour was drained out of some us when in the nearest watering hole next to the stadium we saw our illustrious owner Mr Sage drinking with some lovely young lasses. Now I know most of us go drinking with models following our local A-League club losing a fourth game on the trot but it was a clear sign that things weren't right.

Finally an article emerged about what to do with Mitchell and that a board meeting had been scheduled with Sage stating that there would be discussions about the issues at hand. This seemed to indicate that some on the board weren't happy and action would be taken but it took them a week after being trounced by the Roar to convene and make decisions. What was going in that week where we had no news? Some of us more delusional Glory fans believed that it would be down to the fact that Sage had been scouring the world for a new coach. Meetings with Martin O'Neill in Belfast over a pint and a game of checkers? Hopefully. Pleading with Diego Maradona that Glory was the Napoli of the A-League? Perhaps. No, there was nothing like that going on and when the announcement was made yesterday that Mitchell was out and Ian Ferguson was the new coach there was no real surprise, just a weary realization that we had gone from the complete train wreck of Ron Smith to the poor performances of David Mitchell and now ‘meh' indifference to Ferguson. The press release had announced that Mitchell was to go upstairs and become Director of Football with the patronising comments in the release thanking the fans (who booed him constantly) and having a club on a good footing, what complete balls.

A good footing? Good perhaps for Mitchell in the fact he was simply shunted off to another position and not simply kicked to the kerb for knowing the square root of nothing as far as making a team gel. Ferguson was always the one to be expected to take over in the advent that Mitchell would be given the arse but what's with the 18 month contract? I think most of us were happy for him to steer the doomed ship Glory for a season but not given the task of leaving his greasy deep fried mars bar fingerprints all over a side who was reeling from having a coach who was all kick and rush, 4-4-2 and long balls. Sage should entertain the notion that Gareth Naven be considered for the hot seat for next season. The original Glory captain has done wonders in the youth league and bleeds for the club. It could inspire more fans to come back too. Anyone who saw him lay in to his younger more egotistical teammates at Glory training sessions in the NSL days knows he doesn't think much of ego which would go a long way to curbing the more wayward players at the club who seem to be more keen on back stage passes to Kasabian rather than pre-season training.

Hopefully Ferguson can do something and prove at least some of us wrong (i.e. 90 per cent of Glory members). It was shouted from the roof tops by the Glory propaganda men at the start of the season that he was someone who told it like it was and wouldn't play favourites so let's see him do that now and get rid of some of the passengers in the starting XI, bring in some of the talented players from the Naven coached youth side and at least think outside the box tactically. This away trip to Townsville to face Ferguson's old club North Queensland Fury is a fine baptism of fire to start with. I can speculate what might happen but that would ruin the magic and whimsy of watching Glory get outplayed away from home on an almost constant basis. Let's hope for a confident showing with the players doing it for their new boss, offer some surprising changes that work and even throw some pace and movement in to a side that has lost all the respect it gained by making the finals last season and signing Robbie Fowler for this season. The season starts....now.