Marked for Jesse Wallace
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Jun 2030
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Newcastle Jets waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Perth Glory is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market10 Jun 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Matthew Sutton and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Clayton Taylor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets10 Jun 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout10 Jun 2030
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout10 Jun 2030
Theo Leeming asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad10 Jun 2030
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Perth Glory would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Alex Sutton called up by his country
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Perth Glory that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Mar 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Perth Glory is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match16 Mar 2030
6 matches without a win for Perth Glory
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Perth Glory are no longer polite ones.
Match16 Mar 2030
11 matches without defeat, and then Newcastle Jets. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Perth Glory may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Matthew Sutton and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Words at Perth Glory training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clayton Taylor is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match16 Mar 2030
Newcastle Jets left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Marc Martinez left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
The manager makes an example of Brandon O'Neill
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Sep 2029
The bid was some way short and Perth Glory did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Sep 2029
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Clayton Taylor falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Connor Simpson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Sep 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jesse Wallace and Perth Glory agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market17 Sep 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Arion Sulemani has his answer from Perth Glory; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
Alex Badolato asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Arion Sulemani is on it.
Match17 Sep 2029
Continental football is in reach for Perth Glory
34 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.