A-League Men: Perth Glory expected to be among the most active clubs during mid-season transfer market

Perth Glory’s squad overhaul is set to continue when the A-League Men transfer window swings open on Thursday, with several new signings expected to bolster the squad over the next month. But it comes as popular utility Jarrod Carluccio will depart, with coach David Zdrilic revealing his omission from the Glory side which lost 2-1 to Western Sydney Wanderers was transfer-related. Carluccio, who arrived from the Wanderers on loan last season before extending his stay with the Glory in the off-season, is rumoured to be returning to Western Sydney. It would reunite him with coach Alen Stajcic, who brought Carluccio to Perth in the first place, and Zdrilic confirmed post-game the midfielder would be moving on. Having brought in 14 players since Ross Pelligra took over last February and Stan Lazaridis was installed as the club’s football director, the squad renovation will continue after a disappointing start to the season. Lachlan Wales, an A-League champion with Western United in 2022, appears set to join Perth in the coming days, having attended the Glory’s last two home games — the latter of which, he was spotted wearing a club lanyard. While Zdrilic would not confirm Wales’ signing, he was confident the culture of the squad had significantly improved in recent weeks and any new additions would add to that. “We’ve definitely got signings, but we can’t announce anything right now. What’s important is, we have played 14 games now and there’s a lot of things that were happening behind that we had to fix,” he said. “What’s exciting is it’s coming alive more now. “You’ve seen improvements, but we need extra quality. We just need a little bit more to be able to be competitive in every game.” Japanese media has reported full-back Takuya Okamoto and centre-back Yuto Misao, who have played almost 300 J1 League matches between them, are both close to finalising moves to the club. Former Western Sydney Wanderers defender Tass Mourdoukoutas was also spotted doing run-throughs with the squad after the defeat on Tuesday night, while NCA Newswire have reported Sydney FC striker Patrick Wood — once close to joining Perth — has also been courted by the Glory. Whether the Glory need midfield reinforcements will be something the club need to weigh up, particularly given the energetic Nicholas Pennington suffered a foot injury against the Wanderers. But Zdrilic will likely find himself in a balancing act of integrating the new signings with some of the young players who have impressed in recent weeks. 18-year-old Jaylan Pearman once again caught the eye as an attacking midfielder against Western Sydney, Andriano Lebib looks more comfortable at centre-back with every growing game and Will Freney did not look out of depth on debut.