A-League Men: Perth Glory sign former Manchester United, Rangers, Derby County and Wales forward Tom Lawrence

Former Welsh international Tom Lawrence has played at some of the biggest clubs in football and rubbed shoulders with some of the biggest names in the game. Now, the 31-year-old will add a new chapter to his story in WA, after Perth Glory beat Melbourne Victory to the signature of the one-time Manchester United player for the upcoming A-League Men’s season. The attacking midfielder revealed conversations with Glory coach David Zdrilic and football director Stan Lazaridis helped sway him, as did fellow recent Perth signing and ex-United and Rotherham teammate Scott Wootton. “I spoke to both teams, and when I spoke to Perth, I spoke to the manager, I spoke to Stan, we had a call together,” Lawrence said. “I found their passion for this club, for what they want to do with this team this season, to be the contributing factor of this and I felt like I could do something special. “I spoke to Scotty quite a lot. He was telling me to get out here straight away and was very complimentary about Perth in general and this football club.” The only Glory signings over the past decade who boast a more impressive resume and pedigree than Lawrence are Diego Castro and Daniel Sturridge. Lawrence came through Manchester United’s youth system and was handed his first pro deal by their legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson. “You didn’t want to get on the wrong side of Fergie. What really surprised me with it all, was he knew everything about each player, from 10-year-olds to the first team,” Lawrence said. “His detail for every player was incredible, and that will always stay with me. It was a privilege to get my first professional contract off Sir Alex Ferguson and it was a proud moment to have my debut. He played one English Premier League game for the Red Devils at Old Trafford, before spending the better part of the next decade for a myriad of clubs in the second-tier Championship. After productive stints on loan from United at Blackburn Rovers, Cardiff City and Ipswich Town, Lawrence went onto play almost 200 games for Derby County. Under the guidance of Chelsea legend and manager Frank Lampard, Lawrence started Derby’s heartbreaking EPL play-off final loss against Aston Villa in front of more than 85,000 at Wembley Stadium. That game included England great Ashley Cole, current Scotland star John McGinn and future England internationals Jack Grealish, Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Tyrone Mings and Fikayo Tomori. However, financial problems plagued Derby soon after, leading to the appointment of Manchester United great Wayne Rooney as manager, who duly made Lawrence captain. During the 2021-22 season, the Rams were deducted 21 points for entering administration and financial irregularities and despite the best efforts of Derby and Lawrence (who top-scored with 11 goals), the penalty proved too much for them to avoid relegation. “I had five years there, absolutely loved it. I feel like we still should have got promoted to the Premier League in the play-off, we missed a trick there by losing to Aston Villa when Frank Lampard was the manager,” Lawrence said. “I knew Wayne for a short period when I was at Man United and he was brilliant with me and he got the best out of me by putting that pressure on me as captain.” Lawrence has spent the past three seasons with Scottish powerhouse Rangers and while his time in Glasgow was at times hampered by injury, he has played 60 games across the last two years. “I’ve been doing work back in the UK, some work in Dubai just to keep me ticking over until I decided where to play this season,” he said. “People can say about the injuries at Rangers, but I played 30 games in each (of the past two) seasons...60 games over two seasons, ain’t too bad in my eyes.” Meanwhile, former Glory fan favourite Stefan Colakovski is training with the club as he continues his return from a torn ACL he suffered playing for Wellington Phoenix last season.