By Jon Ritson

Foxe took little convincing to switch from England to the A-League and now hopes Fowler will follow in his footsteps. Speaking to au.fourfourtwo.com following training today, he said: “It’s great to be back in Australia and I’m looking forward to playing here. There seems a really good spirit among the boys here, it is a good standard and then there’s the fact that I worked with Ron Smith when I was a youngster.”

Foxe’s final campaign in England did not end happily. He was part of a Leeds United side relegated to the third tier of professional football for the first time in the club’s history.

“Clearly the players have to take their share of the responsibility for what happened at Leeds. With the squad we had we should have been looking at promotion not relegation.

“But once it was over, Dennis Wise knew I wouldn’t want to play at that level and then there was the issue of the number of games.”

A serious foot injury has hindered Foxe in recent years and the former West Ham and Portsmouth man insists honesty is the best policy.

“I can’t be playing 50 games a season. You have to be honest with yourself and to the people who might be paying your wages. I was looking at options in Europe but again, it was a question of looking at the program you’d be expected to follow. You could lie and say ‘no problem’ but I don’t believe in doing things that way.

“Playing from Saturday to Saturday is not a problem and that’s what I’ll be
looking to do here with Perth.”

Not that Foxe is looking for a 21-game season and then a long break.

Hopefully he can help Perth into the A-League finals and ultimately an Asian Champions League adventure.

“I think it’s great for Australian football that we’ve ventured into Asia and yeah, it would be great to be part of that (Champions League) competition.”

Of course, it isn’t just domestically of course that Australia is trying to make an Asian impression. The Socceroos are currently in pursuit of Asian Cup glory and Foxe has not given up on adding to his own international haul of caps. He said: “Playing for my country has to be ‘the’ career highlight and I have never said I wanted to retire from international football. You never know.

“You learn from all the people you work under in this game. Hopefully I can pass some of that on but then you never stop learning yourself. Look at someone like Teddy Sheringham. He’s past 40 and I’m sure he’d tell you that he can still learn and take new things on board in the game.”

Foxe is happy to be home but is confident that further faces from English football will follow.

“The guys over there (England) were asking me about the A-League and they are aware that it’s really up and running now. I’m sure you’ll see more players looking to get out here.”

One of those players may well prove to be Robbie Fowler and Foxe would be delighted to see him on board.

“Robbie Fowler in the A-League? How else could you describe it as anything other than ‘terrific’.

“He’s not bad he is? He certainly knows where the goal is. Hopefully something can be done and the Australian football fans get to see him next season. I think you could see in his second spell at Liverpool how hungry he still is.”