How Lowe can you go

Just when you thought Perth Glory's season couldn't drop any lower (heh), Kenny Lowe has signed on with the club as the new manager for the next two years.

After ex-manager Alistair Edwards was shown the door for favouring his kiddy-winks over the rest of the team, Lowe took over as interim coach and guided Perth to four wins, four draws and nine losses.

Despite an ordinary performance in his interim period, Perth signed Lowe to a two-year contract and left many alternating from scratching their heads to furiously bashing "lololololololol" into their keyboards.

Lowe won the position ahead of a number of candidates from all over the globe including Europe, South America, Australia and New Zealand. Former Central Coast manager Graham Arnold was in the running before pulling out last week.

The decision to appoint Lowe left the man himself in surprise, stating "I'm surprised a little bit. At the end of the day I'm not really high profile. But I think I've got qualities that will allow me to do well.

"I think it's brave of them to give me the job."

Brave is an understatement considering the negative response from Glory fans and A-League supporters alike. Deciding who the best person to run a club should never be decided by fans because, let's face it, most of them wouldn't know what actually makes a good manager. But it can't go unstated how much of a gamble taking on Lowe full-time really is.

Effective, Perth has committed to a guy that had failed to inspire the players and had created more disharmony amongst fans by the end of his interim period. The Glory were winless for 10 games in a row at one stage during Lowe's initial tenure.

As far as experience goes, Lowe is more than experienced enough to be managing a club, but his 10-year involvement in West Australian youth football and knowledge of the A-League counts for little if he can't inspire the players to play a good brand of football.

What Lowe has on his side is a long break to set the team up to play a fresh brand of football before the beginning of the 2014/15 season. However, Glory fans will be wanting to see a vast improvement almost instantly to justify the club's decision to stick with a man who looked to be failing in his position.

We're all for giving him a go, but the criticism is justified considering the 10-game winless streak and the restlessness of Perth fans towards the closing stages of the season.

Having given Lowe a two-year contract, what Perth must now do is stick by Lowe barring a complete breakdown. They have shown him the faith to sign on the dotted line but that's only the beginning of it. The club can't be fickle about its decision and must take full responsibility for the appointment.

Although the decision to sign on Kenny Lowe on a full-time basis may come as a surprise, the fans should give him a chance after a preseason and a fresh start to the season. However, if Lowe fails to inspire the players to play a successful brand of football, it's on like Donkey Kong.