After being promoted to the Premier League via the Play-Offs, Scott Parker will have known just how difficult his Fulham side were going to find life in the English top-flight.
Parker, a veteran of the Premier League with many London clubs, knows exactly what it takes to be a success and, unfortunately for him, many of his players haven’t shown close to the desire or heart that he possessed as a player.
To that end, the Cottagers are struggling towards the foot of the division, and unless they start picking up points quickly, the chances are they’ll be straight back down in the Championship.
A signing or two in the winter window wouldn’t have gone amiss, and one player who they almost secured was Ivan Toney.
The player ultimately signed for west London rivals, Brentford, and that prompted Tony Khan, son of Fulham club chairman, Shahid Khan, to let the world know what went wrong.
“We hoped to do a deal… I loved him + his data, I badly wanted him but trying to balance FFP with unknown constraints due to COVID, we didn’t have flexibility to pay the fee without depleting funds to invest in defence,” he was quoted as saying by The Sun.
That didn’t go down at all well with Parker, who clearly has more than enough on his plate already to deal with.
“Firstly, I would never want to comment on another player who was at another club so I’m not going to do that,” The Sun quote him as saying.
“I also wouldn’t want to comment on how we go about our decisions as an organisation, in terms of what takes place.
“I took over two years ago and the club was in a little bit of a mess in that sense.
“My soul purpose at that moment was to bring some pride back into the club while also understanding that I want this to be an elite football club and an elite organisation.
“The standards I drive with my staff and players are exactly aiming to do that.
“Of course there are parts of that I can’t control. That’s why here now, two days before Everton, we’re talking about a Twitter post. At times, it’s frustrating.
“I think there is a good intention there. But it’s something that I don’t feel needs to happen.”
If nothing else, it hints at the strife going on behind the scenes, but also Parker’s willingness to put himself front and centre and go to war with the owners if he believes it’s necessary to do so.
Everyone being held accountable for there own actions seems to be the most appropriate course of action, and Parker is at least holding up his end of the bargain as best he can.
Would not be surprised if Parker walked away from this
I would TK ain’t got a clue