Scott Parker

[colinwhite]

Its easy on a fan forum to classify people as Parker lovers or haters. I am neither of these but as long as he is the manager of our great club he has my support. Of course there is justified criticism of many aspects of this season , but equally there is just as much to be positive about.
When Scott was appointed  by the club ,post Ranieri , its was clear that the board had decided to take the long term route. To build something longer lasting that could get out of the championship and sustain itself as a premiership club. Parkers brief stewardship in the PL turned things around ,brought unity in the club and showed a more pragmatic approach to matches. No longer did we see  the swashbuckling approach of Jokanovics team producing flashes of brilliance but ultimately getting undone week after week against team s that were either of higher quality or had more street savvy than us. Ranieri may have had the pedigree but he was from day one the wrong man for the job.His approach was just too different from his predicessor.
Appointing a young and inexperienced manager that knew the club from within was in some ways similar to the Man utd and Chelsea appointments of Solsjear and Lampard respectively. Inherant in the decision to appoint Lampard was that he would need time to develop and that Abramovich (the PLs most trigger happy owner ) would have to be patient. If an instant fix was required then lampard was not the right man for the job. This is also the case with Parker.
Scott is no Jokanovic but since just after christmas we have been  starting to see a new Fulham. One that are no mugs, can mix it up, and show long spells of quality in their play. The approach shown in the last away match ,the grittiness and solidness of our play as well as reasonably  long periods of decent possession is exactly the type of playing style that will be required in away matches in the top flight if we manage to get there.
Should we miss out on promotion I believe the club will have seen enough from Parker to retain his services for exactly the same reason as Lampard seems likely to keep his job- progress has been made and things are starting to take shape. I believe the owners have learnt some lessons. The primary one being that its all well and good going up in style, but we also have to do so in such a way as to be able to sustain our status when we do. To me the sacking of Parker , whether promotoin is achieved or no would give me serious worries about the direction in which the club is moving. He is inexperienced but learning fast.Each time his team has been under pressure they have bounced back and this is something he has recieved far too little credit for.

[JimOG]

Its easy on a fan forum to classify people as Parker lovers or haters. I am neither of these but as long as he is the manager of our great club he has my support. Of course there is justified criticism of many aspects of this season , but equally there is just as much to be positive about.
When Scott was appointed  by the club ,post Ranieri , its was clear that the board had decided to take the long term route. To build something longer lasting that could get out of the championship and sustain itself as a premiership club. Parkers brief stewardship in the PL turned things around ,brought unity in the club and showed a more pragmatic approach to matches. No longer did we see  the swashbuckling approach of Jokanovics team producing flashes of brilliance but ultimately getting undone week after week against team s that were either of higher quality or had more street savvy than us. Ranieri may have had the pedigree but he was from day one the wrong man for the job.His approach was just too different from his predicessor.
Appointing a young and inexperienced manager that knew the club from within was in some ways similar to the Man utd and Chelsea appointments of Solsjear and Lampard respectively. Inherant in the decision to appoint Lampard was that he would need time to develop and that Abramovich (the PLs most trigger happy owner ) would have to be patient. If an instant fix was required then lampard was not the right man for the job. This is also the case with Parker.
Scott is no Jokanovic but since just after christmas we have been  starting to see a new Fulham. One that are no mugs, can mix it up, and show long spells of quality in their play. The approach shown in the last away match ,the grittiness and solidness of our play as well as reasonably  long periods of decent possession is exactly the type of playing style that will be required in away matches in the top flight if we manage to get there.
Should we miss out on promotion I believe the club will have seen enough from Parker to retain his services for exactly the same reason as Lampard seems likely to keep his job- progress has been made and things are starting to take shape. I believe the owners have learnt some lessons. The primary one being that its all well and good going up in style, but we also have to do so in such a way as to be able to sustain our status when we do. To me the sacking of Parker , whether promotoin is achieved or no would give me serious worries about the direction in which the club is moving. He is inexperienced but learning fast.Each time his team has been under pressure they have bounced back and this is something he has recieved far too little credit for.

Thoughtful balanced piece Colin. The little we know of affairs inside FFC paint a very positive picture of Scott. I also am amazed how solid we look against the best in the division compared with the Fulham I saw against eg Luton & PNE. Moreover, whatever happens in the next month we couldn't bring in a new manager given the short change around time between these seasons.I would really welcome a top centre back to ease Ream out, though, who, perhaps because the games are coming thick & fast, looks accident prone under pressure (albeit excellent coming out with the ball)amongst other

[filham]

Yes , I agree and have nothing to add at the moment.
Parkers managerial stats. must be pretty good at the moment but lets hold those back with any further comment until the end of the season.

[Peabody]

Wise words indeed. I have written elsewhere, Scott is still learning his trade and mistakes are bound to happen, they certainly did in the first couple of years in my apprenticeship, as long as lessons are learnt from those mistakes, then we should come out of this in a much better position.

[Andy S]

Parker has received a lot of criticism from almost day one. He has battled through it and got us to the play offs. Some would say that with the squad we had it should have been automatic promotion. So he may well have made mistakes but he has done well enough to warrant another season by the river

[Statto]

It's not as binary as "lovers" vs "haters" but there are clearly people with entrenched positions in support of, or against, Parker. With all due respect Colin, I knew this was going to be a broadly 'pro-Parker' post without reading it, and I've found some of your other posts lately to be quite one-sided and even blinkered, for example being rude towards me and some others IMO posting fairly mild, and perfectly reasonable, criticisms of Parker or aspects of our performances.

I also don't buy the "he's learning..." argument. I've not seen anyone, even Parker's harshest critics on here, disputing that he's a young manager learning his trade. The point is that an extremely well-funded club, competing in one of the top five leagues in world football for the most lucrative prize in world football, is probably not the place for a young manager to learn their trade. FWIW I agree he has the potential to become a good manager. 

It's also easy to get behind Parker when we've won four on the bounce. But it's just as easy to criticise him when we lose two on the bounce like we did a few weeks ago. So I'm not going to allow my opinion to be determined by our short-term form. Overall, we've ultimately performed slightly below my expectations this season, but not much.

I fully agree he's added a 'grittiness' to the team which we've been lacking for the last few years. It reflects his own style as a player and is clearly a strength he has as a manager. And as I've said on other threads, we're incredibly good at hanging onto the lead nowadays, and grinding three points out of unconvincing performances. He ought to be commended for those things IMO.

[colinwhite]

Statto. Not a pro -Parker thread more a pro have a long term approach thread,which I blieve the club has decided upon. As for the blinkered thing, I have reacted to negativity,which at times has been written by people with not a great understanding of the game,when stating that Bentford and Leed s were poor performances.
. I dont buy the "best squad in the Championship that anyone could coach approach " when we win or its all down to poor management and not getting the best out of his players " when we lose. For the record I much preferred Jokanovic as  a manager . Parker is learning and showing improvement . Plus he clearly has got the best out of many of his players. Harrison Reed , Arter, Hector, Rodak , Christie, Odoi ,Onomah ,Cairney,Hector ,Ream  and Mitrovic all spring to mind. M

[RoyTund]

Statto. Not a pro -Parker thread more a pro have a long term approach thread,which I blieve the club has decided upon. As for the blinkered thing, I have reacted to negativity,which at times has been written by people with not a great understanding of the game,when stating that Bentford and Leed s were poor performances.
. I dont buy the "best squad in the Championship that anyone could coach approach " when we win or its all down to poor management and not getting the best out of his players " when we lose. For the record I much preferred Jokanovic as  a manager . Parker is learning and showing improvement . Plus he clearly has got the best out of many of his players. Harrison Reed , Arter, Hector, Rodak , Christie, Odoi ,Onomah ,Cairney,Hector ,Ream  and Mitrovic all spring to mind. M

Learning is fine provided you can see progress; it's frustrating to see the same errors made continuously and what felt like half a season to see another full game decent performance. The last two games have shown that imo with performances tailored to the opposition and better chosen subs. I would obviously prefer not to change manager and Parker to workout but the window with parachute payment advantages and having players with the quality of Mitrovic in this division is a short one. We can't afford to waste that time.

[colinwhite]

Fair point Roy ,but then we get rid of Scott ,half the squad leaves and the whole thing starts all over again.

[rogerpbackinMidEastUS]

Its easy on a fan forum to classify people as Parker lovers or haters. I am neither of these but as long as he is the manager of our great club he has my support. Of course there is justified criticism of many aspects of this season , but equally there is just as much to be positive about.
When Scott was appointed  by the club ,post Ranieri , its was clear that the board had decided to take the long term route. To build something longer lasting that could get out of the championship and sustain itself as a premiership club. Parkers brief stewardship in the PL turned things around ,brought unity in the club and showed a more pragmatic approach to matches. No longer did we see  the swashbuckling approach of Jokanovics team producing flashes of brilliance but ultimately getting undone week after week against team s that were either of higher quality or had more street savvy than us. Ranieri may have had the pedigree but he was from day one the wrong man for the job.His approach was just too different from his predicessor.
Appointing a young and inexperienced manager that knew the club from within was in some ways similar to the Man utd and Chelsea appointments of Solsjear and Lampard respectively. Inherant in the decision to appoint Lampard was that he would need time to develop and that Abramovich (the PLs most trigger happy owner ) would have to be patient. If an instant fix was required then lampard was not the right man for the job. This is also the case with Parker.
Scott is no Jokanovic but since just after christmas we have been  starting to see a new Fulham. One that are no mugs, can mix it up, and show long spells of quality in their play. The approach shown in the last away match ,the grittiness and solidness of our play as well as reasonably  long periods of decent possession is exactly the type of playing style that will be required in away matches in the top flight if we manage to get there.
Should we miss out on promotion I believe the club will have seen enough from Parker to retain his services for exactly the same reason as Lampard seems likely to keep his job- progress has been made and things are starting to take shape. I believe the owners have learnt some lessons. The primary one being that its all well and good going up in style, but we also have to do so in such a way as to be able to sustain our status when we do. To me the sacking of Parker , whether promotoin is achieved or no would give me serious worries about the direction in which the club is moving. He is inexperienced but learning fast.Each time his team has been under pressure they have bounced back and this is something he has recieved far too little credit for.

Thoughtful balanced piece Colin. The little we know of affairs inside FFC paint a very positive picture of Scott. I also am amazed how solid we look against the best in the division compared with the Fulham I saw against eg Luton & PNE. Moreover, whatever happens in the next month we couldn't bring in a new manager given the short change around time between these seasons.I would really welcome a top centre back to ease Ream out, though, who, perhaps because the games are coming thick & fast, looks accident prone under pressure (albeit excellent coming out with the ball)amongst other

We certainly mixed it up yesterday, particularly in the last 60-65 minutes.
Everyone chased, harrassed, tackled, blocked and generally out-muscled a muscly team.  Superb effort

[AnOldBrownie]

I'm Pro Fulham.

I'm less Pro Parker than I was at the start of the season, but my opinion of him as a manager hasn't dropped so much that I'm not willing to support him 100% until the end of the season.

I want him to be successful because it's romantic.   Just like Ole at United and Lampard at Chelsea.

Will he?   We'll see how the season finishes.

I'm more Pro TK than I am Pro Parker, but like I said.   He's got me until the end of the season.   I'll re-evaluate then.
 

[General]

Fair point Roy ,but then we get rid of Scott ,half the squad leaves and the whole thing starts all over again.

Half the squad leaves? You're now making things up to try and validate your perspective. You've no guarantee that is what's going to happen, so why state it as fact.

The fact we've signed knockaert, Hector, Rodak, cavaleiro, Reid to new deals all recently.. suggests you're wrong.

My only gripe is that we're giving parker a shot when we have a good enough squad to go up if we had a more experienced manager in place. We have made a lot of the same mistakes and on top of that I feel parker isn't necessarily playing to our strengths.

For example I'd start with a midfield of johansen, reed and either onomah or cairney at the moment (and yes I know arter has scored two), I think johansen has exactly what the team has been missing.. not only is he a terrier in terms of work rate but he also has the creative eye which patches over cairneys bad days... his pass for onomah's goal yesterday you would not have got from any other player aside from maybe cairney. We've missed that level of quality and creativity in our team from him.

I think with the squad we have we should be walking this league.

To think Cardiff and forest are both in and around playoffs and we beat them with room to grow and not being at our best and missing key players.

It's so frustrating seeing our tactics undo us like that and see players who on their day and own in the like of mitro, knock, cav and Reid all be stifled when they have so much more they can obviously offer.

[FFC1987]

I always disliked the binary positions people give to each other. Criticise Parker and you hate him, praise  Parker and you have a man crush.....Whereas people like myself, love it when Parker does well and hates it when he doesn't because ultimately, it impacts the club I love.

For what its worth, I didn't think Parker was the right man for the job. He's seemingly missed out on his given objective of top 2 but gets an opportunity to make up for it in the playoffs. If we fail, I think he needs to go. If we go up, he has to stay. For me, it's as simple as that. I appreciate this might not be everyone's thoughts and respectfully, each to their own but I just don't think gambling another season on Parker ball with our squad is worth it. We have too much at stake from yo go up this season or next and with increasing pressure, I'm not sure how well this squad/Parker will manage.

Here's to hoping we don't need to find out and Parker gets us over the line!

[colinwhite]

Fair point Roy ,but then we get rid of Scott ,half the squad leaves and the whole thing starts all over again.

Half the squad leaves? You're now making things up to try and validate your perspective. You've no guarantee that is what's going to happen, so why state it as fact.

The fact we've signed knockaert, Hector, Rodak, cavaleiro, Reid to new deals all recently.. suggests you're wrong.

My only gripe is that we're giving parker a shot when we have a good enough squad to go up if we had a more experienced manager in place. We have made a lot of the same mistakes and on top of that I feel parker isn't necessarily playing to our strengths.

For example I'd start with a midfield of johansen, reed and either onomah or cairney at the moment (and yes I know arter has scored two), I think johansen has exactly what the team has been missing.. not only is he a terrier in terms of work rate but he also has the creative eye which patches over cairneys bad days... his pass for onomah's goal yesterday you would not have got from any other player aside from maybe cairney. We've missed that level of quality and creativity in our team from him.

I think with the squad we have we should be walking this league.

To think Cardiff and forest are both in and around playoffs and we beat them with room to grow and not being at our best and missing key players.

It's so frustrating seeing our tactics undo us like that and see players who on their day and own in the like of mitro, knock, cav and Reid all be stifled when they have so much more they can obviously offer.

Not stating any thing as fact but it seems afair assumption don t you think ? Mitro and cairney signed new contracts because Scott stated at the time . Im not trying to validate anything.

[colinwhite]

Fair point Roy ,but then we get rid of Scott ,half the squad leaves and the whole thing starts all over again.

Half the squad leaves? You're now making things up to try and validate your perspective. You've no guarantee that is what's going to happen, so why state it as fact.

The fact we've signed knockaert, Hector, Rodak, cavaleiro, Reid to new deals all recently.. suggests you're wrong.

My only gripe is that we're giving parker a shot when we have a good enough squad to go up if we had a more experienced manager in place. We have made a lot of the same mistakes and on top of that I feel parker isn't necessarily playing to our strengths.

For example I'd start with a midfield of johansen, reed and either onomah or cairney at the moment (and yes I know arter has scored two), I think johansen has exactly what the team has been missing.. not only is he a terrier in terms of work rate but he also has the creative eye which patches over cairneys bad days... his pass for onomah's goal yesterday you would not have got from any other player aside from maybe cairney. We've missed that level of quality and creativity in our team from him.

I think with the squad we have we should be walking this league.

To think Cardiff and forest are both in and around playoffs and we beat them with room to grow and not being at our best and missing key players.

It's so frustrating seeing our tactics undo us like that and see players who on their day and own in the like of mitro, knock, cav and Reid all be stifled when they have so much more they can obviously offer.

Not stating any thing as fact but it seems afair assumption don t you think ? Mitro and cairney signed new contracts because Scott  got the job as they stated at the time . Im not trying to validate anything.

[RaySmith]

I suppose it would be hard to make case against Parker to an outsider, when the team is in a play-off place, and an outside chance of automatic promotion.

I did hear an ex-player saying on the radio that a manager should always stick to his guns re playing style, or he will lose the respect of the players, if he changes with every criticism, and now maybe we are coming good under Parker, though as far as i'm concerned we've had a good season, which isn't over yet, but others disagree.

I always support the Fulham manager anyway.

[FFC1987]

I suppose it would be hard to make case against Parker to an outsider, when the team is in a play-off place, and an outside chance of automatic promotion.

I did hear an ex-player saying on the radio that a manager should always stick to his guns re playing style, or he will lose the respect of the players, if he changes with every criticism, and now maybe we are coming good under Parker, though as far as i'm concerned we've had a good season, which isn't over yet, but others disagree.

I always support the Fulham manager anyway.

See, I've spoken to fans from various clubs and they tend to sympathise that Parker isn't meeting standards. It's common knowledge that we have a lot of talent in our squad, and once you talk financials, it becomes clear this team had expectations of automatic promotion. It's not a discussion that he's completely failing, but its not really a discussion that it's a good to great season. It's just about meeting lower end of expectations, so the bare minimum of what's acceptable.

[ChesterTheTabby]

I suppose it would be hard to make case against Parker to an outsider, when the team is in a play-off place, and an outside chance of automatic promotion.

I did hear an ex-player saying on the radio that a manager should always stick to his guns re playing style, or he will lose the respect of the players, if he changes with every criticism, and now maybe we are coming good under Parker, though as far as i'm concerned we've had a good season, which isn't over yet, but others disagree.

I always support the Fulham manager anyway.

As we all should. He's the gaffer until he isn't. Up Parker, Up the Team, Up the Fulham!

[Logicalman]

I suppose it would be hard to make case against Parker to an outsider, when the team is in a play-off place, and an outside chance of automatic promotion.

I did hear an ex-player saying on the radio that a manager should always stick to his guns re playing style, or he will lose the respect of the players, if he changes with every criticism, and now maybe we are coming good under Parker, though as far as i'm concerned we've had a good season, which isn't over yet, but others disagree.

I always support the Fulham manager anyway.

See, I've spoken to fans from various clubs and they tend to sympathise that Parker isn't meeting standards. It's common knowledge that we have a lot of talent in our squad, and once you talk financials, it becomes clear this team had expectations of automatic promotion. It's not a discussion that he's completely failing, but its not really a discussion that it's a good to great season. It's just about meeting lower end of expectations, so the bare minimum of what's acceptable.

Sorry to disagree here, but there are very few teams that have that "expectations of automatic promotion" in the Fizzy League, as history has proven time and time again, let alone the whole season being turned upside-down with the COVID issue thrown into the mix, and for myself as one life-long fan, I have never made such assumptions in that respect .

I really care less of the opinions of other clubs fans as I do of our own, who live their lives under the shadow of our club, not via some interested-party distance, as such 'other' fans often have the same insight as the journos do, and we can all see their lack of success in predicting the success or otherwise of teams.

Colin has provided a great write-up from more of a neutral perspective imo, given the opinions of some on this forum regarding Scottys abilities, we should be trading places with Luton rather than pushing within 4 points of automatic promotion. I agree totally that if we had a 'better' manager/coach then we would be in the King Seat, but we could also have had a manager who knew nothing of the club or players, and be languishing mid table as well. I cannot buy into the argument previously made that we are in the position we are 'in spite of Scotty', that argument holds less water than claiming Cagafuego actually means spitfire!

We are in the position due to the players, the manager, the coaching staff and the finances being made available to sustain it all, as joint enterprise together.

[AnOldBrownie]

We are in the position due to the players, the manager, the coaching staff and the finances being made available to sustain it all, as joint enterprise together.

Agreed.    Mitro stayed, Tom Cairney stayed, Michael Hector came in, Harrison Reed came in...  who knows what would have happened with a new manager. 

Are there better managers than Scott Parker?  Of course.
Would the results be better with a different manager?   The world will never know because there are too many changeable variables to success.

COYW!!!