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August 3, 2024
It is challenging to evaluate him at another mezzanine club after his chastening experiences at Fulham, Bournemouth, and Club Brugge.
The pattern is recognizable. With a Championship club, the young manager, full of promise, gets his chance. They get promoted under his direction. He speaks well about shape and transition, passing and control, pressing and position, etc. Next came the financial reality of the strikes in the Premier League. Because he believes this is his style and the path to success, the manager hesitates to change his philosophy or may not even know how.
They might accomplish a few noteworthy outcomes. Perhaps, some speculate, this youthful manager is the real deal. But they lose when they play a top team, and playing against elite opponents each week negatively impacts them. The players that walk through the
Championship start making mistakes, and in the Premier League, they get punished for them. Self-assurance wanes. Form degrades. Results go against them. There is a downward spiral.
The manager modifies his strategy after realizing that his attempts to dominate possession and play out from the back are causing possession to be lost in risky situations. He speaks more bluntly. That’s different from how his team is configured to play. The outcomes remain unchanged. Next comes relegation.
If a manager is sacked, their Premier League tenure typically ends, and they may eventually find themselves taking the reins at another Championship club, beginning the cycle anew—much like the myth of Sisyphus.
This brings us to Scott Parker, whose career exemplifies the quintessential path of an English manager. He is personable and articulate, though he often resorts to the monotonous jargon typical of contemporary coaches. His words flow like a gentle stream laden with training philosophies, tactical analyses, and performance metrics.
Parker embodies the image of a manager and carries himself with authority. Even during his playing days, he exuded a sense of command and understanding of the game, suggesting that he should be able to succeed.
He took over from Claudio Ranieri at Fulham in late February 2019, when the team was sulking in the Premier League’s bottom half, ten points adrift from safety. Few managers find themselves in favorable circumstances for their first appointment. While Fulham managed to win three of their remaining matches, they ultimately lost the rest and were relegated—marking the first relegation on Parker’s record.
The following season, Fulham bounced back but didn’t secure a Premier League victory until November, leading to Parker’s second relegation. The cycle continued, and he left the club that summer.
Upon becoming the manager of Bournemouth, Parker led the team to automatic promotion, finishing just two points behind Fulham. They started the 2022-23 season with a victory over Aston Villa. Still, they suffered a devastating loss, conceding 16 goals without reply against Arsenal, Manchester City, and Liverpool. Parker publicly acknowledged that the squad was “unequipped” for the demands of the Premier League, and just three days later, he parted ways with the club.
While his departure was partially due to a problematic fixture schedule, Parker was also a victim of his experiences. He understood the challenges of competing week in and week out against better-resourced teams while trying to maintain his principles in pursuit of a few points.
His misstep was in voicing these concerns publicly; the role of a manager often revolves around instilling confidence in players, helping them believe in their potential to achieve more than their capabilities suggest.
Parker’s realistic outlook was overshadowed when Gary O’Neil took over and managed to guide Bournemouth to a respectable 15th place—not enough to secure his position, as he, too, found himself looking for another struggling club. This is the nature of the profession.
Breaking into the top half of the Premier League is exceedingly tricky; few British managers have that experience, and clubs aspiring for such success often prefer to hire those who have demonstrated promise in less demanding leagues abroad.
One potential avenue for British managers is to seek opportunities overseas. Parker did just that, joining Belgian champions Club Brugge in December 2022. Unfortunately, his tenure lasted just 67 days, during which he won only two of 12 matches. While some players, like star winger Noa Lang, appreciated Parker’s coaching style, the congested schedule left little time for him to implement his strategies. Moreover, he struggled to grasp the nuances of the league, frequently tinkering with the lineup, misplacing players, and seeming to resent the chief executive’s involvement in tactical decisions.
This brief period in Belgium can largely be dismissed, as many capable managers need help with ting new environments. However, those 67 days may deter other foreign clubs from considering him for managerial roles. Thus, Parker again faces the Championship, this time with Burnley.
Like Fulham and Bournemouth, Burnley is a club caught between the Championship and the Premier League, appearing too strong for the former yet unable to establish itself in the latter.
Having stood by Vincent Kompany during their relegation, the club may feel a sense of disappointment that he has since become a target for Bayern Munich—an opportunity that was simply too good to turn down.
As Kompany was, Parker has been designated as a head coach rather than a manager. This distinction suggests that his responsibilities will be more limited, and the club is eager to create a structured framework rooted in principles rather than focusing solely on one individual manager’s identity.
Retaining Kompany’s first-team coach, Mike Jackson, and appointing assistant coach Henrik Jensen—plans set in motion before Kompany’s exit—are crucial to establishing this new structure.
Though five players have departed, and more may follow, Burnley is likely to maintain one of the stronger squads in the division. This makes them the second favorite for promotion behind Leeds.
Parker is familiar with this scenario: each time he has taken charge of a Championship club, it has been one that recently faced relegation and is still benefiting from parachute payments. The expectation of promotion has always loomed large.
While there is a tendency to empathize with a manager whose team descends from the mezzanine clubs, skepticism arises when they attempt to elevate one of those clubs. This is the burden faced by many English managers.
Parker’s record at Fulham and Bournemouth indicates he is not an inept manager. However, it remains difficult to ascertain whether he is genuinely good or merely navigating the perpetual cycle of promotion and relegation.
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